Russian Energy Chains
The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union
Columbia University Press
Russian Energy Chains
The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union
Columbia University Press
Russia’s use of its vast energy resources for leverage against post-Soviet states such as Ukraine is widely recognized as a threat. Yet we cannot understand this danger without also understanding the opportunity that Russian energy represents. From corruption-related profits to transportation-fee income to subsidized prices, many within these states have benefited by participating in Russian energy exports. To understand Russian energy power in the region, it is necessary to look at the entire value chain—including production, processing, transportation, and marketing—and at the full spectrum of domestic and external actors involved, from Gazprom to regional oligarchs to European Union regulators.
This book follows Russia’s three largest fossil-fuel exports—natural gas, oil, and coal—from production in Siberia through transportation via Ukraine to final use in Germany in order to understand the tension between energy as threat and as opportunity. Margarita M. Balmaceda reveals how this dynamic has been a key driver of political development in post-Soviet states in the period between independence in 1991 and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. She analyzes how the physical characteristics of different types of energy, by shaping how they can be transported, distributed, and even stolen, affect how each is used—not only technically but also politically. Both a geopolitical travelogue of the journey of three fossil fuels across continents and an incisive analysis of technology’s role in fossil-fuel politics and economics, this book offers new ways of thinking about energy in Eurasia and beyond.
This book follows Russia’s three largest fossil-fuel exports—natural gas, oil, and coal—from production in Siberia through transportation via Ukraine to final use in Germany in order to understand the tension between energy as threat and as opportunity. Margarita M. Balmaceda reveals how this dynamic has been a key driver of political development in post-Soviet states in the period between independence in 1991 and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. She analyzes how the physical characteristics of different types of energy, by shaping how they can be transported, distributed, and even stolen, affect how each is used—not only technically but also politically. Both a geopolitical travelogue of the journey of three fossil fuels across continents and an incisive analysis of technology’s role in fossil-fuel politics and economics, this book offers new ways of thinking about energy in Eurasia and beyond.
No other scholar has the depth of knowledge of the economics, politics, and social issues surrounding post-Soviet energy that Margarita Balmaceda does. The amount and variety of evidence she brings together makes this manuscript a tour de force. William Reisinger, author of Energy and the Soviet Bloc: Alliance Politics After Stalin
Russian Energy Chains is a magnificent achievement. Balmaceda breaks free of the conventional oil-focused narratives about resource dependence by looking beyond the power of central states to control supply and showing instead the complex interaction of opportunity and dependence all along the value chain from producer to consumer. There is nothing like it in the field—a must-read. Thane Gustafson, author of The Bridge: Natural Gas in a Redivided Europe
An impressive book that provides deep insights into the value chain and the power and market structures behind it. Balmaceda has written a highly scientific book, but it is also a fascinating travelogue that follows the molecule from its Russian source to the end consumer in Europe. I wish the book many readers! Kirsten Westphal, coeditor of The Political and Economic Challenges of Energy in the Middle East and North Africa
Russian Energy Chains glitters with fresh insight into the scores of links that bind molecular structure to international relations. With this book, Balmaceda reaffirms her place among the most creative scholars working on energy and politics today. Douglas Rogers, author of The Depths of Russia: Oil, Power, and Culture After Socialism
Balmaceda’s tour-de-force analysis of energy sector “value chains” illustrates the weaponization of fossil fuels and how the regimes of consuming countries are tempted into corruption and dependence. Only this kind of geopolitical travelogue of energy sources can reveal this level of complexity and nuance. Catherine Wanner, editor of State Secularism and Lived Religion in Soviet Russia and Ukraine
Balmaceda’s book provides a useful guide to understanding how the physical characteristics of oil, gas, and coal shape European politics. Russian Review
A meticulous exploration of a complex system of energy supplies involving Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, New Books Network
The real strength of the analysis in the book is its geographic coverage. Balmaceda calls us to think about the whole value chain, from mining and quarrying in Russia, via transit countries, to end users in a European Union (EU) member state. Eurasian Geography and Economics
An impressive effort to jointly consider the three complex chains between Russia, Ukraine and Germany. Europe Asia Studies
Helps the reader understand the entangled relationship between the materiality of different energy industries, the supporting regulatory framework, and the key actors participating in the different energy value chains. H-Sci-Med-Tech
Acknowledgments
A Note on How to Read This Book
A Note on Transliteration and Measurement Units
Part I: The Overall Framework
1. Dependency on Russian Energy: Threat or Opportunity?
2. Is Energy a Weapon or a Constituent Part of Disaggregated Power Relations?
3. Energy: Materiality and Power
Part II: Hydrocarbon Chains and Political Power
4. Natural Gas: Managing Pressure from Western Siberia to the Nürnberg Power Plant
5. Oil: Managing Value Swings from Siberian Fields to Gasoline Stations in Germany
6. Coal: Managing Subsidies from Kuzbass to Ukraine’s Metallurgical Complex in the Donbas to Germany
Part III: New Types of Energy and New Political Chains
7. And the Chains Meet Again
8. Disruptive Energies and the Tentative End of a System: An Epilogue
Appendix A: Glossary of Key Technical Processes in the Natural Gas, Oil, and Coal-Metallurgical Chains
Appendix B: Main Actors
Appendix C: Chronologies of Main Natural Gas, Oil, and Coal Market Events for Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
A Note on How to Read This Book
A Note on Transliteration and Measurement Units
Part I: The Overall Framework
1. Dependency on Russian Energy: Threat or Opportunity?
2. Is Energy a Weapon or a Constituent Part of Disaggregated Power Relations?
3. Energy: Materiality and Power
Part II: Hydrocarbon Chains and Political Power
4. Natural Gas: Managing Pressure from Western Siberia to the Nürnberg Power Plant
5. Oil: Managing Value Swings from Siberian Fields to Gasoline Stations in Germany
6. Coal: Managing Subsidies from Kuzbass to Ukraine’s Metallurgical Complex in the Donbas to Germany
Part III: New Types of Energy and New Political Chains
7. And the Chains Meet Again
8. Disruptive Energies and the Tentative End of a System: An Epilogue
Appendix A: Glossary of Key Technical Processes in the Natural Gas, Oil, and Coal-Metallurgical Chains
Appendix B: Main Actors
Appendix C: Chronologies of Main Natural Gas, Oil, and Coal Market Events for Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Winner, 2022 Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Winner, 2022 Ed A. Hewett Book Prize, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies