The Unexpected New Winners in the Global Energy War

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By Matthew Dalton and Eric Sylvers

(The Wall Street Journal) — Once-obscure corners of the energy world, from offshore Congo to Azerbaijan, are booming as Europe finds new sources of natural gas to replace the Russian supplies that once powered the continent. The shift is redrawing the world’s energy map at a rapid clip.

In Bir Rebaa, deep in the Sahara, the Italian energy company Eni and Algeria’s state-owned energy company are drilling dozens of wells, producing gas from previously untapped fields in a matter of months.

Three pipelines beneath the Mediterranean Sea connect Algeria’s vast gas reserves to Europe. For much of the last decade, Russian gas giant Gazprom had kept prices low, pushing suppliers like Algeria out of the European market.

Algeria has long had a strong alliance with Russia, buying large amounts of weapons from Moscow. Europe’s sudden thirst for Algerian natural gas is challenging that relationship.