This further underlines the need for greater diversity of supply and more storage capacity for natural gas.

This further underlies the need for greater diversity of supply and more storage capacity for natural gas. Gas-importing countries will recognize the need to build in buffers.

First, we have to find a common vocabulary for energy security. This notion has a radically different meaning for different people. For Americans it is a geopolitical question. For the Europeans right now it is very much focused on the dependence on imported natural gas.

We are living in a new age of energy supply anxiety.

But that's not enough: To maintain energy security, one needs a supply system that provides a buffer against shocks. It needs large, flexible markets. And it's important to acknowledge the fact that the entire energy supply chain needs to be protected.

The world oil market is in the grip of a slow-motion supply shock, in which a $70 to $75 barrel price reflects an aggregate disruption of over 2 million barrels a day.