Oil provides somewhat less economic power than gas because it is a fungible commodity, and interruptions of supply can be made up by purchases on world markets. But gas is expensive to transport, for it depends on costly pipelines or gas liquefaction facilities that cannot be replaced quickly when flows are interrupted.
俄罗斯当前即使不再是一个全球性超级大国，其巨大的石油和天然气储备使它成为一个能源超级大国，而且普京看起来像要打这张牌。由于石油是一种可替代商品，因此它所提供的经济力量比天然气要稍逊一筹。而且，供应中断可以通过在全球市场采购来得到弥补。但是，由于天然气依赖于在输送中断时无法立即更换的昂贵的管道或者天然气液化设施，因此，其运输成本昂贵。