GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR: CHALLENGES FOR UKRAINIAN ENTERPRISES

Abstract

It has been determined that, at the global level, energy is increasingly turning into an instrument of political influence: Europe is seeking to balance decarbonisation with energy security, the United States is deploying oil and liquefied natural gas as a form of «energy weapon of democracies», China is building its own supply chains, while the Gulf states and African countries are gradually emerging as centres of a new energy configuration. The uneven pace of decarbonisation has been analysed: France is actively developing nuclear power as a carbon-free backbone of its system, Germany, having phased out nuclear plants, is facing a deficit of stable capacity and rising electricity imports, whereas Poland maintains a high dependence on coal. The phenomenon of countries that combine a traditional oil-based model with a «green» transition, in particular the United Arab Emirates, has been examined, as well as the energy positioning of Africa, which by 2025 is approaching the significance once held by the Middle East in the mid-twentieth century. It has been generalised that the global energy landscape is becoming less a dichotomy of «clean» versus «dirty» and more a division between systems that generate political influence and systems that are forced to respond to it, which directly shapes the strategic orientations of Ukrainian energy enterprises. It has been substantiated that, for Ukraine, under conditions of military aggression and post-war reconstruction, the key issues are the risks of energy neocolonialism, the need to diversify partnerships, participation in new value-added chains, and the avoidance of asymmetric dependency models. Framework approaches have been proposed for the strategic management of Ukrainian energy enterprises, integrating the objectives of decarbonisation, energy security, and enhanced institutional resilience. At the same time, it is essential to take into account both the opportunities for Ukraine’s participation in international energy chains and the associated risks of politicised cooperation, the emergence of new asymmetric dependencies, and the consolidation of Ukraine’s role as a peripheral supplier of «green» energy, which may acquire the features of energy neocolonialism.