What about natural gas?

Natural Gas

Big Picture: Natural gas is a weapon too. Energy is the new battlefield weapon and the United States and its friends are losing.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Russia Outflanks EU's Pipeline Plan

Seeking New Source of Gas, Europe Meets a Kremlin Blitz

Wall Street Journal

By GUY CHAZAN

June16, 2008; Page A1

BUDAPEST — During the Cold War, the balance of power was measured in nuclear warheads. Now a new kind of contest is playing out. The battlefield is Europe's energy market. The objective is pipeline proliferation. And Russia is winning.

Europe is witnessing a race between two mammoth pipeline projects that would bring natural gas to the Continent from the Caspian and beyond. One of the plans – hatched in Europe, championed by Washington and named for a Verdi opera – has been hobbled by bureaucracy. The other, backed by the Kremlin, is rolling ahead with a speed and success that has surprised and frustrated the West. The outcome could shape energy supplies, and political influence, in Europe for decades to come.

KREMLIN RULES

• The Race: Europe is seeking to build a pipeline to help ease the Continent's dependence on Russian gas. Moscow has proposed a pipeline of its own.

• The Playing Field: The European project has bogged down in red tape. The Russian plan, backed by full Kremlin firepower, has raced ahead.

• The Impact: A Kremlin-backed pipeline would increase Russia's leverage over Europe as its natural-gas needs are expected to soar.

The European Union has been desperate to reduce its dependence on Russian fuel ever since Moscow turned off the gas tap to Ukraine two years ago in a pricing dispute, disrupting supplies to Western Europe in the middle of winter. The EU's proposed solution was the Nabucco pipeline, which would pump gas from Central Asia and the Caucasus without going through Russia.

But earlier this year, in the last few months of his presidency, Vladimir Putin mounted a diplomatic push on behalf of the Kremlin's own proposed pipeline, called South Stream. Moscow enlisted the support of former Eastern European satellites through which the new supply route would pass – including Hungary, which had been a signatory to the rival Nabucco plan.

“The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday.”

– Sat Jun 28, 7:05 AM ET, TEHRAN (Reuters)

Russia has become an energy titan in both oil and natural gas.

If fully exploited, the United States has about nine years worth of reserves — assuming no increase in demand or proven reserves.