The starting point for energy security today as it has always been is diversification of supplies and sources.

According to one study by the United States Geological survey, 86 percent of oil reserves in the United States are the result not of what is estimated at the time of discovery but of the revisions and additions that come with further development.

The North Sea was supposed to run out in the 1980s. Then in the 1990s. And now production is still on-line.

An important United Nations environmental conference went past 6:00 in the evening when the interpreters' contracted working conditions said they could leave. They left, abandoning the delegates unable to talk to each other in their native languages. The French head of the committee, who had insisted on speaking only in French throughout the week suddenly demonstrated the ability to speak excellent English with English-speaking delegates.

The starting point for energy security today as it has always been is diversification of supplies and sources.

A premium in the oil price of somewhere between 10 to 15 dollars a barrel reflects this heightened anxiety.

The Russians are turning east to the Chinese - to the Europeans' surprise. It always seemed to me that the relationship between Russia and China would shift from being based in Marx and Lenin to being based in oil and gas.