ユーラシアにおけるロシアの石油・天然ガスパイプライン戦略

抄録

The nature of pipelines is to form a “natural monopoly” due to the huge investment required and its superiority through taking precedence against late comers. Russia, the second largest oil producer in the world, has a history of constructing oil exporting networks to ports on the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea as well as an inland pipeline system to Eastern Europe named “Druzhba”. Russia has also made a plan to construct several new pipelines. That is not only to cope with future oil demand but to expand its transport capacities to access future oil markets. Among Russia's planned new pipelines there is a new oil supply system from East Siberia to the Pacific Ocean (ESPO) to access new markets in Northeast Asia. Russia is also the largest gas producing country in the world, which confronts competition of gas suppliers set by Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan for the market of China and the South Europe respectively, on the other hand Russia made China a gas-market competitor against the traditional European market, which allowed Russia to win a series of long-term sales and purchase agreements from European gas distributors. As the gas demand soars, Russia may notch a stronger position against both East and West due to its magnitude and flexibility of deliveries.