ENERGY POLICY AND
ENERGY TRANSITION IN EURASIA

Energy constitutes a major lifeline in all societies and one of the most crucial sources of maintaining and developing global life. At the same time, “the energy business” is a very complex topic. In order to understand it, one must deal with a myriad of different issues connected to this topic. The course focuses on energy policy and energy security understood in the context of global and Eurasian political economy and international relations. The course offers different perceptions of energy security in importing and exporting nations and aims at contemporary development in providing energy security on global, regional, and national levels. Special attention will be given to EU-Russia energy dialogue as well as to energy policy of the former Soviet states. Students will analyze the current developments in the energy sector from political, economic, legal, and environmental angles.

The course provides students with knowledge about EU-Russian relations, which comprises ideas, interests, and institutions while focusing on various areas of EU-Russian interaction (politics, economics, security, energy). Particular attention is paid to energy as the key field of EU-Russian interdependence, which at present is fundamentally reshaped due to both peculiarities of EU-Russian relations and energy transition. The knowledge about EU-Russian relations, which the course provides, will allow students to analyze the dynamics of these relations and current trends as well as to forecast further developments and to advise on the interaction with both actors at different levels and in difference capacities.

Russia is one of the key natural gas suppliers in the world. It has large domestic market, as well as a number of significant export projects. Massive pipeline and LNG infrastructure projects connect Russia with downstream markets in both the West and East. As natural gas is considered to be an important part of the energy transition, there is much that Russian companies have to offer. Yet, they face serious challenges in the key export markets such as changing market structures, strong competition from other suppliers, sanctions, etc. In order to allow students to analyze how Russian companies deal with these challenges now and in the future, the course offers a conceptual introduction to contemporary natural gas markets, introduces key terms and methodologies, and provides the factual background about key target markets. Throughout the course, we will look into the supply and demand balances including historical perspectives of the core target markets for Russian natural gas, the existing setup in terms of the degree of market integration, market structure, regulation and governance features, competition and price setting mechanisms. Target markets for the purpose of this course will include Russian domestic market, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Specific attention will be paid to the relations between Gazprom and other Russian natural gas producing companies. The aim of the course is to provide students with the understanding of dynamic development of the natural gas markets and the place of Russian exports within the wider context.

Understanding the essence of main economic concepts and their applicability to energy market analysis is essential in grasping the world of modern energy and its influence on societies, environment, economic development, and political actions. The main aim of this course is to equip students with such understanding. The first part of the course will comprise of discussions of different market structures and their applicability to different energy markets. This part also includes a brief introduction into game theory since it can be applied both to the understanding of separate energy markets (e.g. oil market or pipeline gas market) and to explaining behavior of different groups of countries, producers, and groups within the economy. The second part discusses important macroeconomic concepts and implications of the “resource curse”. This part enables students to understand the role of energy resources in the economy, their input in shaping economic structures, societies, and development trajectories.

The seminar is designed to expose students to the fast-pace, ever-changing world of energy through finding, analyzing, discussing, and publishing about major news events around the world on a weekly basis. The class aims for students to develop their own voice in regard to the energy world. Students should view the seminar as a friendly roundtable where the week’s energy events can be discussed in a sometimes passionate, but always respectful, manner. Students are actively encouraged to apply the knowledge they gain from their other ENERPO courses to the real-world current events that will be discussed in this weekly seminar. This seminar aims to give students horizontal knowledge of the energy world and expose them to as many concepts, countries, policies, and experts in as short an amount of time as possible. Students should use this seminar to discover what interests them in the energy world. As this seminar runs for two semesters, first semester students will be asked to give a presentation, while second semester students will write an academic article for the ENERPO Journal. In order for students develop a more vertical knowledge, they are encouraged to focus on a specific topic, region, or energy debate that might be interesting to them. This will help them do a better job on their long presentation, journal article, and ultimately their master’s thesis.

A modern government cannot stay aloof from the problem of energy sustainability. Given the rapid economic development accompanied by acute environmental problems and increased energy demand in many countries, policymakers across the globe are looking for a policy toolbox to reconcile the environmental and economic objectives in the energy domain. Some countries place an emphasis on using market-based support schemes to alter the energy mix with the deployment of renewable energy (RES). In other countries, energy efficiency measures are prioritized and RES comes very much second. This course enables students to develop a basic understanding of policy instruments that are used by governments to promote sustainable energy on the demand and supply sides. One of the most significant barriers inhibiting deeper penetration and growth of renewable sources is a weak cost competitiveness compared to conventional energy sources. The overarching aim of this course is to contribute to a deeper understanding of factors that drive and enhance cost competitiveness of RES. Part of the answer to the question of how to unlock sustainable energy rests on utilities and their business model. The utilities of the 21 century seem as an “umbrella” that pulls together smart grids in remote areas, ESCO contracts, and conventional power plants. This course will provide participants with an understanding of various business models and policy mechanisms that are used to expedite the development and penetration of sustainable energy among utilities.

China is one of the world's largest economies and energy consumers. Traditional energy resources, and coal in particular, represent the major share of China’s energy mix. In 2020, China announced plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Such large-scale plans to rebuild the energy system have several consequences for the rest of the world. First, it will significantly affect the dynamics of international trade as China, one of the largest importers, decreases its dependence on these energy resources. Secondly, today China is already a world center for technological development and the production of equipment necessary for "green energy" with a significant part of the materials needed for the renewable energy industries produced in China. The course includes introductory lectures on China's energy system and the place that the country occupies in the international energy system. Discussions will then explore the scale of the measures undertaken by China over the past decades in the context of the climate agenda, and the technologies that are developing in the country and becoming available to other countries. Finally, together we will analyze the consequences of China’s energy transition in terms of global energy and geopolitics.

The first building block of this course is the basics of energy. Such terms and concepts as energy demand and supply balance, total primary energy supply, total final energy consumption, energy mix, primary and secondary energy resources and country energy balances are explained. We also review key recent trends in international energy during the first lectures. The second building block is the concept of energy security and its links to various concepts within International Relations theory. From a practical point of view and throughout the 20th century, energy has become a crucial aspect of international relations, and this has led to the inclusion of the concept of energy security in the structure of international security and other theories and concepts of international relations. Finally, the largest amount of time within the course is devoted to the discussion of various Asian economies and their energy systems, as well as key aspects of their interactions in energy sphere. The Asia Pacific region is home to the world’s largest energy resource buyers such as Japan, China, and South East Asian countries as well as established suppliers of oil and gas to the international market such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Asia is characterized by a rapid pace of growth in energy demand as well as increasing weight in international politics.

The course explores the national oil companies (NOC) in the world, i.e. the state-owned companies from petroleum producing countries that control the lion’s share of the world’s oil and gas reserves and account for the bulk of the global hydrocarbons production. Their history, their current and future role and place in international energy markets, their problems and challenges including those generated by climate policy and energy transition, are investigated. A special focus is made on NOC non-commercial (i.e. social and political) functions and their implications for the competitiveness of an NOC vis-à-vis international oil companies (IOC). The course studies the reforms of the national oil companies that have been implemented or are currently being implemented in certain petro-states. Main aspects of their corporate strategies are described and certain prevailing myths about NOCs are discussed. The course includes 2 case studies: Latin America (Pemex, PDVSA and Petrobras) and Russia (Rosneft).

This course introduces students to current social situation in the Russian Arctic and to complex relations between today’s Arctic indigenous and other populations along with the oil and gas companies working in the region. The course is aimed at Russian and international students and young professionals who are interested in the topic and/or are planning to work in the Arctic or with Arctic issues.

Academic writing course is designed to equip students with both the knowledge of the process (how to sit down and write, how to cope with procrastination) and the result (how to structure an essay, article, and policy paper, how to identify a good and relevant journal, how to recognize predatory publisher, how to use scientometric tools, databases, and indexes). The course includes lectures, class discussions on the above topics, and a practical part consisting of workshops, writing groups, and peer review of students’ texts.