The Soviet-West European Energy Relationship Implications of the Shift from Oil to Gas

This report analyzes, in historical perspective, Soviet oil and gas exports to Western Europe, and attempts to explain the underlying economic motivations for those exports. The increasing importance of oil and gas in total Soviet hard currency earnings is studied from the viewpoint of Soviet dependence on the energy markets of Western Europe. The report also offers projections up to 1990 on the volume and value of Soviet oil and gas exports to hard currency markets. These projections from the basis of a concluding analysis of the effect on the Soviet balance of payments of the shift from oil to gas in the structure of hard currency energy exports. (Author).