Letter from Western Europe: Europe’s balancing act

As tragedy continues to unfold in Ukraine, European leaders hasten to balance security, affordability and sustainability in the energy sector

An energy crunch was already underway before war erupted in Eastern Europe. But it took the potential loss of Russian oil and gas to drive home the fragility of Europe’s energy security situation. Western hesitation over strict sanctions on Russian energy is understandable in the context of Europe’s dependence on it. However, we are already halfway down the path to lower Russian oil outflows, and that already heralds higher consumer prices even if the war were to end today. European refineries are fed not only by substantial seaborne shipments of Russian crude, but also directly via a network of large pipelines that run through Ukraine and Belarus to Germany and Central and Eastern Europe. T