One of the biggest themes at Davos this year — and one that was not there last year — was "competitiveness." This concern, however, was hardly limited to the annual conclave in the Swiss Alps. It reverberated with simultaneous developments in both Brussels and Berlin that point to the beginning of a major, if difficult, rethink of Europe's energy policies. It all comes down to shale gas and the energy revolution it has triggered in the United States. All this puts European industrial production at a heavy cost disadvantage against the United States. The result is a migration of industrial investment from Europe to the United States — what one CEO called an "exodus." It involves, not only energy-intensive industries like chemicals and metals, but also companies in the supply chains that support such industries. --Daniel Yergin,
CNBC, 27 January 2014
In one session I attended, a senior European official declared that Europe needs to wake up to the "strategic reality" that shale gas in the United States is a "total game changer." Without a change in policies at both the European and national levels, he warned, Europe "will lose our energy intensive industries — and we will lose our economy long term." --Daniel Yergin,
CNBC, 27 January 2014
David Cameron has issued a warning to Brussels not to stand in the way of Britain’s drive to exploit its reserves of shale gas through the use of controversial fracking technology. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Prime Minister said the development of “cheap and predictable” energy sources could help to reverse the “off-shoring” of European jobs to the rising economic powers of Asia where labour costs are lower. But he warned that the opportunities presented by shale gas - which had helped transform the US economy - could be undermined if the European Union sought to impose unnecessary new regulations. --
Blackpool Gazette, 27 January 2014
To relocate in Europe, businesses will be encouraged by cheap and predictable sources of energy. We should be clear that if the European Union or its member states impose burdensome, unjustified or premature regulatory burdens on shale gas exploration in Europe investors will quickly head elsewhere. Oil and gas will still be plentifully produced, but Europe will be dry. –David Cameron,
World Economic Forum, Davos, 24 January 2014
The United Arab Emirates, a Gulf Opec oil producer, said it was looking at the possibility of importing natural gas from North America, in what would be one of the most striking developments since the start of the US shale boom, according to a report. “We may follow the same trend of considering investments in the United States and Canada to bring some of that gas back home,” UAE oil minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui told the news wire on Monday at an energy conference in London. --
Upstream News, 27 January 2014
In modern Germany, industry carries a much more powerful political stick than the ordinary consumer: if it has to pay the full market price for its energy — now more than double that paid by rivals in America — it will simply move out. The Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was hardly exaggerating when he said last week: “Unless the EU takes action … [it] could destroy the manufacturing industries that are the backbone of the European economy.” – Dominic Lawson,
The Sunday Times, 26 January 2014
The number of jobs in the German solar energy industry has more than halved in two years, figures released by the government on Tuesday revealed. Unable to keep up with competition with Chinese producers, big solar producers such as Conergy, Solon and Q-Cells have all registered for insolvency over the past few years. Since the beginning of 2012, more than half of the then 10,200 solar energy jobs in Germany have been cut. For the first time in nearly half a decade, the number of Germans working in the solar business stood at under 5,000 in 2014. --
The Local, 28 January 2014
