The influence of new natural gas sources on energy security in the USA

The thesis focuses on the influence of new natural gas sources on energy security in the USA. The new sources include mainly shale gas, but also tight gas and others. The main objective of the thesis is to evaluate the impact of changes in production and trade in gas on energy security and self-sufficiency of the USA. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is theoretic and thus provides the frameworks for the following parts of the thesis. It focuses on the security concept in literature and in the papers of international energy agencies, e.g. IEA. For the purposes of the thesis, energy security is defined as the ability of a state to secure uninterrupted and stable supply of energy at a reasonable price of sufficiently diversified energy sources, which can be flexibly substituted among each other without additional costs by the end consumers. The second chapter concentrates on energy security in the USA, the development of energy legislation and the position of the United States in international comparison from this point of view. The third chapter deals with the technical background of production and its legislative status of the USA. To compare, it also addresses the production legislation in some EU countries. It follows up market implications of increased domestic production, specifically its profitability, changes in energy mix and in trading position of the USA in energy sources. The fourth chapter analyzes price impacts using change in domestic and foreign demand and supply in natural gas, including their price elasticity, and the price development itself. The fifth chapter summarizes, based on the findings from previous chapters, perspectives of the future development, mainly impacts on economy and potential export. The thesis comes to the main conclusion stating that the production from domestic sources shall have a positive impact on energy security not only in the USA, but also consecutively in other countries dependent on import of energy sources through higher diversification of source countries. Better available commodity may contribute to greater price competitiveness of domestic products on international markets and help to substitute coal with gas in energy mix. The biggest risk is seen in the low gas price that makes the production economically unprofitable. However, the gas price should maintain the level which would allow for profit of the producers, reasonable price for the consumers and increased level of energy security thanks to further development of the production technology, its better price availability and increased demand on cleaner energy sources.