Old Interests New Interdependencies - The Increasing Strategic Importance of Energy Pipelines
Dec 2007, Vol. 152, No. 6
By Tobias Feakin
The access to regular, reliable and plentiful supplies of energy is critical to any nation’s stability and prosperity. The pipelines that carry those resources become the ‘arteries’ which supply the ‘lifeblood’ of a nation’s economy and society. The importance of such pipelines cannot be underestimated in this regard as any stem in the flow of energy to a particular country can inhibit its ability to function. In a world which is seeing a rapid decline in renewable energy resources, most specifically oil and gas, and a rapidly increasing population, which currently stands at 6.6 billion and is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050, this equation becomes more acute. To satisfy the increasing energy needs of this expanding world population, new sources of energy have to be harnessed, and consequently pipelines have to be built to carry that energy to the countries in need. However, many of these pipelines have to be built in increasingly dangerous environments, where their security is harder to ensure, and the strategic importance they retain rises immeasurably. Due to the nature of free market economics, pipelines are, in a majority of cases, under private ownership, yet represent part of sovereign critical national infrastructure and as such the state has a vested interest protecting them. Conversely, the state has the capacity to manipulate them either through regulation, legislation, market control or direct action. In this way, pipelines are both functional veins, that can be controlled, but are also symbolic of state power and the complexity of modern state/private sector interdependence and interaction. This paper does not aim to look at the particular operational difficulties involved in securing a pipeline within these environments. Rather, it will examine strategically how pipelines are becoming a tool to exert geo-political power at a state level, as well as the potential they offer as a high-value target to non-state actors, most specifically terrorist groups such as Al-Qa’ida.
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By Tobias Feakin
The access to regular, reliable and plentiful supplies of energy is critical to any nation’s stability and prosperity. The pipelines that carry those resources become the ‘arteries’ which supply the ‘lifeblood’ of a nation’s economy and society. The importance of such pipelines cannot be underestimated in this regard as any stem in the flow of energy to a particular country can inhibit its ability to function. In a world which is seeing a rapid decline in renewable energy resources, most specifically oil and gas, and a rapidly increasing population, which currently stands at 6.6 billion and is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050, this equation becomes more acute. To satisfy the increasing energy needs of this expanding world population, new sources of energy have to be harnessed, and consequently pipelines have to be built to carry that energy to the countries in need. However, many of these pipelines have to be built in increasingly dangerous environments, where their security is harder to ensure, and the strategic importance they retain rises immeasurably. Due to the nature of free market economics, pipelines are, in a majority of cases, under private ownership, yet represent part of sovereign critical national infrastructure and as such the state has a vested interest protecting them. Conversely, the state has the capacity to manipulate them either through regulation, legislation, market control or direct action. In this way, pipelines are both functional veins, that can be controlled, but are also symbolic of state power and the complexity of modern state/private sector interdependence and interaction. This paper does not aim to look at the particular operational difficulties involved in securing a pipeline within these environments. Rather, it will examine strategically how pipelines are becoming a tool to exert geo-political power at a state level, as well as the potential they offer as a high-value target to non-state actors, most specifically terrorist groups such as Al-Qa’ida.
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