RISKS AND THREATS TO STRATEGIC ENERGY RESOURCES IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Energy resources, especially oil and gas, are currently the most important factor that can provide economic and social development and, therefore, they continue to be cause for both cooperation and confrontation between the actors of our times. Limiting or prohibiting access to one of these types of resources may constitute a major threat to national and regional security with serious consequences for the international system. Therefore, any economy that depends on hydrocarbons imports, regardless of its degree of development, permanently faces energy risks and threats. In this paper, we aim to clarify a series of theoretical aspects on strategic energy resources, energy risk and energy threat and identify and comprehensively analyze the main energy risks and threats which occur or may occur in the near future at national level (focusing on Romania), regional level (focusing on EU) and international level.