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Francesco Sassi

@frankstones.bsky.social

250 followers 35 following 1.4K posts

Postdoctoral Fellow @statsvitenskap.bsky.social🇳🇴 Energy Statecraft, International Relations, Geopolitics, Diplomacy. Non-resident Research Fellow @ RIE - Bologna🇮🇹

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · Jan 17

🚨Publication Alert🚨
I am beyond excited to share with you my latest publication titled "The (Un)Intended consequences of power: The global implications of EU
LNG strategy to reach independence from Russian gas" on Energy Policy.
Link 🫴 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kRs614YGg...
🧵

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 14h

To further explore how energy becomes an instrument of War
➡️Tankers, Drones and Deterrence: The Energy War Moves to the North
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3342
➡️Ukraine's Winter Depends on Imported Gas
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3352

eklipX Intelligence

rebrand.ly

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 14h

industry have been injured. It seems the Russian army has shifted its strategy and these attacks are concentrating on decentralised gas and power systems. Most are away from heavily defended major centres, but with cascading consequences for the population and industries.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 14h

disruption of water and transportation services connected to electricity outages is spreading fast in the East of the country, closest to the frontline, where most of the Russian attacks have been concentrated in the last weeks. Ukrainian citizens and workers of the energy

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 14h

this winter. In a matter of a few days, Russia launched literally thousands of drones and several dozens of missiles against energy and other critical infrastructures, knocking out around 60% of Ukraine's gas production just at the beginning of the heating season.
Moreover, the

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 14h

Moscow's energy war on Kyiv is fastly escalating and while many commentaries are discussing the damages created by Ukrainian strikes on the Russian oil industry, reducing the flexibility of its exports, too few are instead highlighting how dire the scenario is turning for Ukraine

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 14h

🚨The last one has been another night of severe damages to the🇺🇦Ukraine's energy system, with multiple blackouts caused by🇷🇺Russia's drone and missile attacks.

A quarter of the capital Kyiv was left without electricity
🧵

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

To further explore the🇺🇸US role in gas geopolitics follow my blog
➡️Is Italy Diversifying Gas Dependence From North Africa to US LNG?
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3207
➡️The US-EU Energy Bargain: Energy in Exchange for Sanctions
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3136

eklipX Intelligence

rebrand.ly

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

construction and they are prone to even increase this amount further.
What could possibly go wrong...

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

goal to transform the US into the dominant global energy player to serve other foreign policy objectives is spurring an unprecedented amount of new projects to export LNG from the Gulf states.
Single energy companies have nowadays up to $10 billion investment backlog in pipeline

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

almost $50 billion in new and planned pipelines which are designed to connect shale production outposts in rural US to major consumption centres in states like Texas, Tennessee or Florida where dozens of billions of investments are heading towards data centres.
Moreover, Trump's

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

reaction to the creation of a new global order spelled out by the American dominance, the globalisation of LNG, and the outstanding relevance of energy geopolitics in the definition of a polycentric global order.
In the US, this means that energy companies are ready to invest

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

dangerous asset to be sabotaged, disrupted, and end up laying stranded for decades to come.
Today, we are instead experiencing a boom in pipeline investments and pipeline politics in major producing countries from North America to Asia, from Africa to parts of Europe as a

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

Then, the🇷🇺Russian invasion of🇺🇦Ukraine determined a turning point in the energy relationship between🇪🇺EU countries and the main former energy supplier to the East. Again, the narrative was that pipelines were an inefficient way of linking producers to consumers and even a

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

simply swept away these old-fashioned and anachronistic was of transporting resources from production locations to final customers. The electrification of energy consumption and decentralisation of generation output would have eradicated all investments in this sense.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

Just a few years ago, when COVID hit global energy markets and brought oil and gas prices in negative territory, agencies, institutions and scholars all around the world predicted the era of pipelines and great energy infrastructure was gone and the energy transition would have

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

💡For years we heard pipelines were just a remnance of the past. Today, the🇺🇸US thirst for gas and Trump's ambitions to make the country the LNG dominant player in the world are making pipelines great again
🧵

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 2d

A direct link to the analysis
📜https://rebrand.ly/RE3352

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 2d

🚨🇷🇺Russia's latest strikes against🇺🇦Ukraine's natural gas production facilities are forcing Kyiv to ask for help to🇪🇺European allies in preventing further damages to the energy system and purchase additional gas imports

Read my analysis here
📜https://rebrand.ly/RE3352

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 3d

A direct link to the analysis
📜 rebrand.ly/RE3342

eklipX Intelligence

rebrand.ly

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 3d

🚨Recent security and deterrence initiatives by🇩🇰Denmark &🇫🇷France are showing increasing risks for🇷🇺Russian crude oil exports from the Baltic Sea, with serious implications for the stability of the global oil markets and the Kremlin.

Read my analysis
📜https://rebrand.ly/RE3342

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 4d

To further explore the geopolitics of the energy transition consider following my blog
➡️The Oil & Gas U-Turn of New Zealand
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3279
➡️The Chinese Solar Industry is Bleeding and Beijing Must Act
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3010

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 4d

Whereas Chinese solar panel producers have been increasingly fighting and overcompeting each other with lower costs, urging Beijing to intervene directly in the market, China will be a major country profiting from the availability of more hydrocarbons exported from Africa.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 4d

generation systems and output grows for homes, small businesses, and agricultural appliances.
Paradoxically, this could also free more oil and gas for major producers and exporters in the continent, sometimes using valuable commodities to feed underdiversified national systems.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 4d

energy sources.
The demand for off-grid, affordable energy booms where Africans cannot afford to pay for expensive electricity, imported gas, or simply have no access to electricity services due to disrupted and malfunctioning grids.
The affordability of decentralised energy

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 4d

From
🇿🇦South Africa
to
🇳🇬Nigeria
and
🇩🇿Algeria
African imports of Chinese solar panels have been on the rise this year and it represents a continental phenomenon, not just a single country trend. It signals an expanding interdependence based on domestic incentives to diversify