Energy politics

The importance of energy resources on global geopolitics, influencing or even determining outcomes can’t be overestimated (your report, 8 March).

Previously, resource conflict and diplomacy were about oil, predominantly involving the West in the Middle East.

Now attention has shifted to natural gas and the security of supplies to the European Union.

Clearly the Ukraine and the Crimea will figure large in what could be the “new post-Cold War” geopolitics.

The United States may be self-sufficient in oil and natural gas but exporting a surplus to Europe could prove difficult.

Isn’t, for example, Germany’s dependency on Russia for gas a constraint on its foreign policy stance?

Also, the US isn’t exempt as corporations like ExxonMobil have economic interests in the Ukraine, affecting foreign policy.

Arguably, the rise of natural gas as an energy resource is now a key factor in the present crisis and will be for the foreseeable future.

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie