Trade Relations in the European Gas Market Before and after the Russo-Ukrainian War: From a Game Theory Perspective

Abstract

Europe is increasingly dependent on Russian natural gas imports. As Ukraine is the main transit country for gas trade between the two sides, the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which started in 2014 and has not stopped yet, has led to Europe's gas trade with Russia receiving an impact. Due to the importance of natural gas and the fact that this war was the largest in Europe since World War II, the trade relations between the European and Russian natural gas markets before and after the Russo-Ukrainian war and the diversification of natural gas in Europe have been studied by many scholars. This paper uses a review to summarize and sort out the relevant literature based on game theory to study the gas market trade relations in Europe before and after the Russo-Ukrainian War. According to these scholars, the trade relations between Russia and Europe in the gas market will continue to cooperate despite the impact of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The interruption of gas exports to Ukraine and the construction of pipelines bypassing Ukraine are acceptable to Russia and Europe. Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq, along with the United States, should actively invest in expanding their gas export capacity to have the opportunity to serve as an alternative to Russian gas and make Europe less dependent on Russian gas imports. This paper provides an understanding of the implications of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict for the world in terms of gas trade. This paper provides a reference for related studies, and to understand the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the world from the perspective of the gas trade.