Up until the last few weeks, natural gas developers may have been wise to learn Russian.
The second-biggest exporter of natural gas in the world, Russia has been supplying 30 percent of Europe’s gas resources, and that meant looking to Russia when expanding overseas.
But the future of natural gas, and the investments, development and even language services surrounding the resource might change depending on what happens in Ukraine.
Russia’s gas exports to Europe pass through the former Soviet country. Should Ukraine lose all ties to Russia, the country, and it’s neighbors, may need a new supplier of natural gas.
Meanwhile, the United States leads the world in natural gas production and some politicians are arguing that it could be a potential stand-in if political dynamics shift for the worse in Ukraine.
Speaker of the House John Boehner called Tuesday for the U.S. to increase gas exports to the country. The U.S. already exports natural gas to Canada and Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but exports to countries not under the agreement have been debated, according to the Financial Times.
Should American companies follow this path, the important language of business would be Ukrainian, the language of 67 percent of the population. Even though most Ukrainian students learn English as their first foreign language, Ukrainian would be helpful for technical translations and even negotiations, not to mention cultural competency.
Another language option for companies would be Russian, which is spoken by one fourth of the population of Ukraine. However, as discussed in a previous post, the Russian language is tangled in the political debates which gave rise to the recent tensions, and could be too politically-loaded for business.
All of this, of course, assumes that Russia will cut off natural gas to Ukraine and that the U.S. will step in, but there are other scenarios which might result from the current situation that would require different languages.
The U.S. is not Europe’s only option for an alternative natural gas supplier. Existing pipelines from more geographically-close countries, such as Norway and Algeria, could be strengthened to meet European needs and perhaps even those in Ukraine.
In that case, the natural gas industry may not center around Ukraine, but instead on development in other areas. Industry experts would have to keep close tabs on pipeline expansion to find where to invest.
Russia and Ukraine could also resolve the current tensions. If diplomacy prevails, the natural gas situation will likely change anyway. Russia may seek to bypass Ukraine to avoid future threats to its European market, or Ukraine may seek to exploit more of its own gas resources. In either situation, Russian and Ukrainian will be important languages to the gas industry, depending on where companies want to expand their ties.
No matter what happens, English language companies have a lot to gain by staying up-to-date on the region. No one can be sure yet which languages they might require for business, and the layout of the industry is definitely about to change.
