Wars for oil

The wars usually are described as made ​​for freedom, democracy, independence or anything like that but - almost always - there are half a many other things. Since the time of the battle of Stalingrad, where the Germans lost the war in an attempt to conquer the oil fields of the Caucasus wars have become more than anything else for oil.

Of course, the concept of "war for oil" should not be seen in the brutal way to win a piece of land rich in oil fields. Very often, things are more subtle and have more to do with the strategic control that with the conquest. Not infrequently, then, are the result of strategic assessments blatantly wrong. A good example is the case in Afghanistan, where some have argued that the West's interest was in securing the control of a pipeline that would transport oil from the Caspian Sea. Too bad that the area described in the '80s as "The New Saudi Arabia" has proved to be much less oil-rich estimates of the first and after a decade and more work has not yet produced almost nothing.

But it is a fact, however, that the map of the wars, and those of petroleum resources coincide quite well. So what can we say Ukraine and the recent events? We know that Ukraine produces a little 'oil; but really very little, even less than Italy. E ', however, an important node for the pipelines that carry Russian natural gas in Europe. It can make a war for the pipelines? You could not see the reason: the important thing here is the control of wells and what does not depend on Ukraine, but from Russia.

But there is an interesting point about the story that Ukraine may not have all noticed: shale gas (and shale gas) that is extracted by the process known as fracking. Do you know that shale gas fracking and things are all the rage in the United States and that many have talked about revolution and even a "new era" of fossil fuels. Obviously, however, the shale gas does not exist only in the United States. There is also in Europe and the beauty of the story is that some of the most important deposits might be located in the Lublin Basin, an area on the border between Poland and Ukraine. This area has the advantage compared to other European deposits to be sparsely populated and therefore not cause the same problems of pollution that would cause the fracking in countries such as, for example, France. Of these deposits in Ukraine, has been discussed for a long time and the main complaint by Western oil companies is that they get permits for exploration and exploitation by the Ukrainian government was very difficult.

Now that you know these things, it may be that a certain logic to emerge in recent events. He's coming off a division of Ukraine into two parts. The Russians take the Crimea with the basis for their fleet, as well as the Eastern part of Ukraine. The Europeans (and Americans) take the Western Ukraine, with its shale gas wells and all of the profits of the case. It is impossible to say whether this was indeed the idea from the beginning, but put it this way, it would seem a good deal for everyone (except probably for Ukraine, which ends up broken up into two pieces, but that's how it goes world).

There is only one small problem: the reserves of shale gas in Ukraine are, for the time being, only on paper. It also extract gas from shale is expensive, replacing the wells continuously and in addition is terribly polluting. It is not at all certain that the firm has an economic performance, so much so that it seems that the "boom" of gas in the U.S. is already running out. How long can, then, the Ukrainian gas? It was worth the risk a war for this reason? We do not have reliable answers to these questions; the only thing certain is that in the current situation, in the race to grab what remains of the precious resources of oil and gas, we are willing to do anything and everything else takes a back seat.