ABSTRACT
Modern economies cannot function without energy and the search to secure reliable energy supplies at an affordable price is one of the most important quests for European business. In the absence of a crisis, the wider business and policy-making community tends to demonstrate complacency about energy markets. However, it takes only the threat of disruption for energy to move up the policy agenda. This was apparent in January 2006 when the row over gas supplies
spill over and disrupt gas supplies to the EU as a result of their transit through Ukraine. This incident placed energy in the spotlight once more. It could well remain there for some time given ongoing high energy prices and greater competition for supplies in international markets: the US, for example, increasingly needs to fulfil its energy needs through imports given the depletion of its domestic supplies, and emerging markets such as China and India seek to fuel their
Nos numeros sumus et fruges consumere nati (We are just statistics, born to consume resources).
