U.S. Lowering Global Energy Risk, Ukraine Faces Highest Risk: Energy Security Report

News
March 5, 2014
Meagan Clark
 
Ukraine faces the highest energy security risk in the world, but expanded U.S. production of natural gas is lowering global energy risk, according to the 2013 International Index of Energy Security Risk released Tuesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
 
Norway tops the list with the most energy security. The U.S. ranked sixth, climbing one place since 2012 and three places since 2005. Mexico, New Zealand and the U.K. ranked second, third and fourth, respectively. Ukraine hasn’t budged from the bottom since the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early '90s.
 
“Ukraine is suffering from dramatic exposure risk,” Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, told reporters on a conference call.
 
Ukraine’s risk stems from its very inefficient use of energy and almost complete dependence on Russia for energy imports, Steve Eule, vice president of the institute, said.
 
But Ukraine is also one of the few countries that has reduced its energy security score in the past two decades. The country has discovered shale resources, is exploring LNG projects near the Black Sea, and is privatizing its coal industry—all efforts that, if continued, will pay off in the long term, Eule said.
 
Read the full article at International Business Times.