CURRENT THOUGHTS ABOUT OIL AND GAS.

Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation might well be about to make a huge mistake regarding the supply of oil and gas, his country’s main export. A brief lesson from history could save Russia a lot of money by avoiding this error. 

I once saw a car bumper sticker which said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Becoming educated through studying is an obvious way to learn things and to avoid making mistakes. And who wants to make mistakes, especially when doing so might turn out to be expensive? 

Although many may no longer think so, an example of very useful education is the study of history. When we study history, it is almost as if we are looking at a free laboratory experiment which someone else ran in the past. We can examine the circumstances in which various events occurred, we can observe the actions and motivations of the people and the personalities involved, and finally, we can see the results after all the events have played out. As a result, we can learn a huge amount from examining all of these different viewpoints. 

For example, there is the current situation concerning the supply of Russian oil and gas to Western Europe. Certain Western countries, especially Germany, Italy and Hungary, to name but three, have become highly and overly dependent on these supplies from the East. In fact, in 2021 Germany received 32% of her gas from