Still to be confirmed but clearly on the horizon, the sale of the Czech gas pipeline company Net4Gas by its German owner RWE is clearly a matter of concern for the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO). Minister Martin Kuba on Tuesday expressed his fears over the prospects of a non-strategic buyer ready to sell for a quick profit when the opportunity arose but also admitted he was legislatively powerless to intervene.

Just before midday on Tuesday in Lubmin on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a symbolic turn of a large tap to launch commercial operation of the first of two lines of the Nord Stream — the world’s longest submarine gas pipeline. The dynamics of the European gas market will never be the same. 

US Vice-President Joe Biden made blunt warnings about reliance on Russian energy and encouraged Czechs to sign up US company Westinghouse to build new nuclear reactors in the country when he visited Prague in late 2009, diplomatic dispatches leaked by WikiLeaks have revealed. Unfortunately, previous remarks from the Prague embassy undercut some of Biden's warnings.

Shale gas has transformed the US energy market and promises to do the same for Poland by making it independent of natural gas imports, chiefly from Russia. Hopes of smaller exploitable finds in the Czech Republic have sparked foreign and local companies to file applications with the Environment Ministry to carry out research. Many environmentalists, however, will hope that they come back empty handed.