Pipeline Politics: How Infrastructure Shapes Central and Eastern Europe’s Dependence on Russia

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine produced many detrimental consequences. One of those consequences was the realization by the European Union that it was heavily dependent on Russia as the predominant supplier of energy. The EU quickly launched the REPowerEU Plan to end its reliance on Russian energy (European Commission, 2022).

However, Central and Eastern Europe remain tied to Russia not only because it provides a relatively cheap source of energy but also because the existing infrastructure cements their dependence on Russia. The necessary infrastructure for a complete cessation of Russian energy imports does not exist. With no available long-term alternative, no alternate pipelines or refineries are available to limit Russia’s energy imports. 

Ghosts of the Past – Existing Infrastructure

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union developed the energy infrastructure of Central and Eastern Europe. It built refineries, pipelines and storage facilities for crude oil and natural gas sourced from Western Siberia and the Volga-Urals regions.

The most significant oil pipeline is the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline, which became operational in 1964. Druzhba has the capacity to deliver up to two million barrels per day of crude oil from Russia to Europe.

With regards to natural gas infrastructure, there are several important pipelines such as the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod (Brotherhood) and the Soyuz pipelines. These carry natural gas to southern Central Europe, while the Yamal-Europe and the Nord stream pipelines carry natural gas from the Yamal field in northern Russia to northern Central Europe.

Many of these pipelines have been operational for decades and despite the fall of the Soviet Union, the infrastructure and the dependence remained in place. This inheritance has locked Central and Eastern Europe into a quagmire. Unless new refineries, port terminals and pipelines for both crude oil and natural gas are developed, these countries will remain dependent.

Proposed Solutions and Potential Opportunities

The EU’s programme to phase out Russian energy, REPowerEU, set out a number of objectives, including efficiency schemes, diversifying energy supplies and investing in green technology. However, since its launch in May 2022, this programme has not yielded the desired results (European Court of Auditors, 2022). Many EU member states-especially in Central and Eastern Europe-still import large amounts of gas and oil, either through exemptions to sanctions, through willing third parties or through the use of Russia’s ‘shadow’ fleet of tankers (CREA, 2025). Fundamentally, REPowerEU fails to tackle the underlying reason for the dependence on Russian energy; infrastructure.

Similarly, ad-hoc solutions like Floating Storage and Regasification Units (Port news, 2025; Wettengel, 2024) and private sector energy traders are not long-term sustainable solutions (Geri, 2025).

If the EU, and Central and Eastern Europe in particular, wish to phase out Russian energy, it must make long-term serious investments in a new energy infrastructure network. This would include new pipelines, crude oil and LNG terminals as well as refineries. Such an expansion of the infrastructure would fortify Central and Eastern Europe’s energy supply against unforeseeable geopolitical risks by creating dissimilar redundancy within the system. 

New Infrastructure

Certain countries have already attempted to improve their infrastructure. 

• Romania has committed to expanding its gas extraction efforts as well as its pipeline infrastructure (Fabian, 2025; Gotev, 2025).
• Poland has invested in expanding the LNG terminal in Świnoujście from 6.2 bcm to 8.3 bcm and has also begun work on an additional terminal in Gdańsk (Nikše, 2024).
• The Three Seas Initiative has become a forum for Eastern and Southern Europe to coordinate their efforts on new pipelines and LNG terminals (EMBER, 2025).
• Hungary is constructing a new oil pipeline to Serbia (Reuters, 2025) and exploiting newly discovered reserves (MOL, 2025).
• Croatia has approved the construction of the Zlobin-Bosiljevo gas pipeline and is expanding the capacity of the LNG terminal in Krk (HINA, 2024).
• Additional pipelines and LNG terminals in Southern Europe (Hess, 2025).

New Sources

A new and diversified energy import and transportation infrastructure would provide these countries with flexibility in choosing their suppliers. There are many potential suppliers that would complement this new infrastructure using numerous untapped gas fields within the British EEZ that are yet to be considered (Cavcic, 2025). Additionally, there are potential opportunities in the eastern Mediterranean (Godwin, 2025) as well as new oil and gas fields across Central Europe (Kazanci, 2025; Kern, 2025) that ought to be considered. New partners in North Africa, especially Libya and Algeria, have also proven their ability to be reliable suppliers (Haytayan, 2025).

On another front, France has been the leader in nuclear power, which now makes up 40.3% of France’s energy mix (IEA, no date). Some countries are already expanding their efforts in this area-Hungary (Dalton, 2025; Gencturk, 2025)-while in others, such as Germany, it has become a contentious political issue (Alkousaa, 2023; WNA, 2024). Nuclear power could also potentially eliminate the need for an expensive and expansive fossil fuel pipeline infrastructure (Judah, B. et al., 2023).

A Long-Term Project

The diversification of Europe’s energy infrastructure is a long-term project. Oil and gas pipelines take an average of 3-4 years to complete. Similarly, LNG tankers require specialised terminals, which can take 5 years to construct. While crude oil terminals are more available in Europe-with six major terminals operating in Central Europe-they can also take years to construct. 

Additionally, there are many accompanying facilities which are necessary to support the transportation and electrification of fossil fuel energy imports. These include; pressurisation/ compression stations, processing plants, local distribution centres, gate stations, power plants, refineries, transformers, pumping stations and storage facilities. These also require significant time and capital to construct.

Therefore, if the EU-Central and Eastern Europe in particular-wishes to phase out Russian energy, it must make serious long-term investments in their infrastructure. These projects can take years and billions of euros to complete. Consequently, these countries should begin these efforts promptly. 

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