Resource Security - Energy

Question 1

Who are some high energy producers?

Answer 1

• Large oil reserves = Iran, Saudi Arabia.
• Large coal reserves = China, Australia.
• Large oil and gas reserves - UK, Russia, Canada.
• Large coal, oil, gas reserves = USA, Indonesia.

Have lots of natural resources and money to exploit them.

Question 2

Who are some low energy producers?

Answer 2

• Large oil reserves, but politically unstable and lacks money = Angola
• Relatively wealthy, but small fossil fuel reserves = Spain.

Few resources, or unable to exploit resources due to lack of money or political instability.

Question 3

Who are some high energy consumers?

Answer 3

• Wealthy countries tend to consume lots of energy per person = Sweden, USA.
• Some import large amounts of energy = Ireland, Italy, Spain, Japan.

Can afford it = have electricity and heating, use energy-intensive devices.

Question 4

Who are some low energy consumers?

Answer 4

• Poorer countries consume less energy per person as can’t afford it = Ghana, Mongolia.
• Some export lots of energy but consume little = Canada, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Australia.

Unable to afford it, less energy available, lifestyles less dependent on high energy consumption than richer countries.

Question 5

What are some of the reasons for the changing patterns of energy trade?

Answer 5

• Gas production/trade expected to increase as oil prices rise. It is difficult due to costs of infrastructure.
• Western Europe over reliant on Russian supplies.
• TNCs are important in increasing exploration and distribution of resources.
• OPEC trade still important, but less important compared to the past due to discovery of resources through fracking.

Question 6

What is an example of energy geopolitics?

Answer 6

• Trade relations between Russia and Europe threatened because of Russia’s support for separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and its annexation of Crimea.
• Ukraine’s government allied with Europe, leading to the EU to place more sanctions on Russia, even though puts Europe’s gas supply at risk.

Question 7

What is OPEC?

Answer 7

Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
- Has 13 members - Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela.
- Has 79.4% shares of world proven crude oil reserves in 2018.
- In 1970s, restricted the supply of oil to the world market. This raised prices. This meant that the USA and EU looked to energy alternatives to be less reliant on OPECs.

Question 8

What is energy security?

Answer 8

Having ongoing access to a reliable supply of energy sources that a country requires for its needs now and into the foreseeable future.

Question 9

What is energy transition?

Answer 9

A pathway towards zero carbon from energy production and use towards the end of the 21st century.

Question 10

What is primary energy?

Answer 10

Energy sources obtained in their natural, raw form e.g. oil, coal, gas, wind, running water.

Question 11

What is secondary energy?

Answer 11

Energy that is transformed or converted from primary energy sources into manufactured.

Question 12

What are the advantages and disadvantages of oil?

Answer 12

+ Indispensable in road transport and petrochemical industries (plastic).
+ Easy to transport.

• High price volatility.
• Geopolitical tensions in areas with the largest reserves.

Question 13

What are the advantages and disadvantages of natural gas?

Answer 13

+ Cleanest of fossil fuels.
+ Efficient fuel for power and heat.
+ Increasing proved reserves from unconventional sources.

• Reserves increasingly offshore or in more remote areas.
• Large investment requirement for transport.
• Increasingly long supply routes with high infrastructure costs.

Question 14

What are the advantages and disadvantages of coal?

Answer 14

+ Wider geographical distribution and more plentiful reserves.
+ New technologies to improve environmental performance.
+ Stable prices.

• High emissions of carbon particulates.
• Environmental mitigation such as CCS have a negative impact on energy efficiency.

Question 15

What is Energy Mix?

Answer 15

Various energy sources and their proportional contributions that meet a nation’s energy needs.

Question 16

What are some factors that influence a country’s energy mix?

Answer 16

• Inertia = Retaining a mix that already exists because of economic or technical difficulties changing.
• Government energy policy = Do they abide by the Paris Agreement? Do they want to switch to renewable?
• Level of development.
• Availability of an energy source in a country.
• Diversity of the energy mix.
• Physical/locational/geological factors.
• Geopolitics = Some suppliers can’t be relied on.

Question 17

As reserves of non-renewable fossil fuels continue to diminish, what may happen?

Answer 17

• European dependence on Middle East oil will remain significant.
• USA will still rely on imports.
• Asian dependence on Gulf oil will increase.
• Natural gas will be fastest-growing primary energy source.
• Russia will expand its exports of oil to China, Japan, South Korea through the East Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline.
• Use of sustainable renewable sources of energy will increase.

Question 18

What are the characteristics and role of Transnational Corporations in Energy Worldwide?

Answer 18

• Involved in all stages of oil and gas production. Creates jobs worldwide, infrastructure develops, but workers are vulnerable to sudden changes made from top of chain.
• Have the power where they can choose how much they want to charge for oil and gas. Creates unequal power, can create a ‘price war’ if others follow.
• Monopolise the market, dominating control over oil and gas supplies. See above.
• Some partially or completely ‘state owned’ e.g. Gazprom in Russia. Countries can set favourable prices for allies, creates issues when countries are interdependent on each other for oil/gas.
• Their power and economic strength gives them power to influence governments. Can influence legislation that makes conditions more favourable to them.

Question 19

Strategies to increase energy supply: Oil and Gas Production

Answer 19

• 81% of energy used in 2014 was fossil fuels.
• Becomes more economically viable to develop less accessible reserves as prices increase (unconventional reserves).
• Hydraulic fracking - extract natural gas from shale. Can cause groundwater and air pollution.
• Oil can be extracted from tar sands (sediment containing bitumen).
• As reserves run out, pressure to explore reserves in remote/protected locations e.g. Antarctica.

Question 20

Strategies to increase energy supply: Nuclear Power

Answer 20

• Little CO2 emissions, high energy density.
• Disposing of radioactive waste expensive and difficult, accidents are catastrophic.
• Nuclear provided 5% of energy in 2014.
• International Energy Agency suggests doubling global nuclear energy production by 2050.

Question 21

Strategies to increase energy supply: Renewable Resources

Answer 21

• Global reliance increased from 12.4% in 1973 to 14.1% in 2014.
• Three Gorges Dam in China has generation capacity of 20,000+ mW of HEP. Involves flooding 632km^2, displacing 1 million people.
• More sustainable than fossil fuels/nuclear energy, however expensive and unreliable.
• The UK government runs a feed-in tariff scheme, where energy suppliers pay small-scale renewable energy producers for electricity.

Question 22

According to the World Energy Council (WEC) - a few future scenarios for energy seem to be widely accepted. What are they?

Answer 22

1) By 2050, non carbon emitting sources will make up around 40% of global energy mix.
2) Coal could remain important with increased use of CCS.
3) Average energy use per capita will decline in developed countries as individuals adopt greater energy efficiency. This will be offset by rising per capita usage elsewhere.
4) Oil is likely to decline as its necessity for transport diminishes.