Publication

This working paper on the supply of natural gas is part of the INDES (Insuring against Disruptions of Energy Supply) project, a project financed by the European Commission. According to the author, the issue of security of gas supplies is frequently discussed on the basis of intuitive and nonsystematic arguments, greater import dependence is normally equated with greater insecurity, and strategic stocks are the risk management tool most commonly considered. This paper however shows that import dependence does not necessarily entail greater insecurity, and the author concludes that in fact the opposite may be the case. It also discusses several alternatives to strategic stocks for risk management.