Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft Oil Company Igor Sechin has presented a keynote speech at the energy panel “Global Energy Transformation” of the 24th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The event arranged with support from Rosneft Oil Company was attended by Bernard Looney, Chief Executive Officer of BP; Neil Chapman, Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil; Dai Houliang, Chairman of CNPC and Chairman of PetroChina; Robert Dudley, Chairman of Oil and Gas Climate Initiative OGCI; Alok Kumar Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ONGC Videsh; Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Baker Hughes; Russel Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of Vitol; Jeremy Weir, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Trafigura; Ivan Glasenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Glencore; Jay Prior, Vice President for Business Development of Chevron, Rovnag Abdullaev, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic; Karin Kneissl, a new independent member of Rosneft Board of Directors; and Karen Kostanyan, Managing Director, Head of Russian Research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In his speech, the head of Rosneft provided a detailed analysis of the global economic situation amid the pandemic and drew the attention of the energy panel to the fact that market participants underestimated the risks of instability in the world.

According to him, sustainable energy development must rely upon a sound market competition of all types of energy generation, which guarantees the supply of clean and affordable energy to consumers and a minimal environmental footprint.

NEW CHALLENGES

“We have, on numerous occasions, discussed with you the issue of instability risks’ influence on the global markets, but such “black swan” was not conceivable, including its swiftness, origination and implications. If previously we considered the overproduction, imperfect regulation and unilateral sanctions to be the main risks, now these factors turned out to be of lower priority in comparison with the universal disaster,” Igor Sechin noted. He said that the pandemic left no choice to anyone; all countries had to impose the quarantine restrictions, social distancing measures and to curb business activity. At the same time, the quarantine severity and duration, as well as the nature of support to economy considerably varied from country to country.

“The creation of vaccines raised hope for the occurrence of herd immunity and created an illusion of a rapid recovery from the crisis. However, the scale of the pandemic, the virus’s capacity for mutation and the occurrence of new virus strains were understated by everybody, so the expectations of pandemic fast localization did not materialize,” Rosneft CEO noted.

According to him, in addition to the persisting risks, the world now sees some new risks: deteriorating traditional economic relations and closing domestic markets; judicial interference; regulatory policy focused on green energy subsidizing, and something that is very important - a dramatic change of the role of minority institutional investors, which are now influencing the development vector of entire industries. “The new pandemic-triggered risks to be highlighted include an unprecedented reduction in consumption and business activity, which entails rapid deterioration of markets stability and creates, among other things, great challenges to the energy industry,” Sechin stressed.

He said that one of the outcomes of the pandemic is the regionalization of the markets, which appears to replace the globalism. “Each country seeks its own ways, including ways out of the pandemic,” he explained. The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that the global economy issues have been accumulating over the past 20 years. “These include debt, unemployment, widening social inequality and many others. The pandemic made these issues even worse,” Rosneft CEO noted.

As a result, an additional framework is being created for developing the multipolar world, establishing powerful regional hubs, enhancing the role of national currencies, Igor Sechin believes.

“The longer the pandemic lasts, the stronger regionalization sings we will see. Meanwhile, it is important to avoid confrontation, ensure a constructive dialog, and refrain from huge unproductive expenditures associated with something that results in producing “guns before butter”,” he emphasized.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Igor Sechin said that the pandemic became the key element that affects the life style and policy, making adjustments to the political agenda. “It was the pandemic and the progress in countering it that ultimately predetermined the results of elections in USA. In the near future, we’ll be able to see its contribution to the shift of the policy elites in other countries as well,” Sechin believes.

According to Rosneft CEO, the success achieved in countering the pandemic along with the mitigation of economic implications turn out to be competitive advantages of the countries that effectively respond to the changing external environment. “An example of a country dynamically recovering from the crisis is China with their focus on the recovery of the real economy,” Sechin stated.

Chinese economy demonstrates robust recovery because of the set of actions aimed at minimizing the implications of the pandemic and the support to real production. Rosneft CEO noted that, based on 2020 results, the country’s GDP grew by 2.3% and may recover to the pre-crisis level as soon as in 2021.

Along with China, India will become another locomotive of the global demand recovery. According to IMF’s forecast, India will see a 7.7% GDP growth per annum over the next 5 years, while China’s GDP will grow by 5.8% per annum. Demand for energy resources will be growing at outstripping rates in both countries.

Igor Sechin expressed his certainty that the plans of Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to improve energy availability to every citizen of the country will make India the key growth driver of the global demand for energy resources. At that, the Energy Concept of India rather than placing focus on one or two priority areas provides for well-balanced development of all energy sources - renewable energy, biofuels, gas, cleaner use of oil and coal, as well as the transition to new energy sources, including hydrogen.

“Referring to the image of India as a heavenward Sun god’s chariot mentioned by Mr. Narendra, we could safely state that the development of Indian economy will make considerable influence on the image of global energy,” Rosneft CEO said.

NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

At the same time, countries that were relatively less successful in fighting the coronavirus had to take additional actions to support their economies, which, along with certain positive effect, may have some long-term negative consequences, Igor Sechin noted in his speech.

This is exemplified by the monetary growth in USA. “As we see, the US, unlike China, are stimulating the stock market rather than the real production. Inrush of funds to the stock market, which capitalization is already more than doubled the US GDP, may entail - as was the case more than once- a considerable correction comparable with a crash of dotcoms [first Internet companies] in early 2000s. Capitalization of a number of sectors is growing without the support of fundamental factors, thus creating risks to the global economy because of the “bubbles” occurrence in the financial markets,” Rosneft CEO said.

Energy industry was among the first to suffer from the crisis and became one of the most seriously affected industries of the global economy last year, as it was hit by a one-two punch from a reduction of both demand and prices, Igor Sechin noted.

Based on the last year’s performance results, the overall loss of 20 global public petroleum majors was $33 billion, as compared to $242 billion of profit they generated in 2019. In particular, Saudi Aramco showed a decline in profits. In order to support the socioeconomic and budget stability, Saudi Arabia has to spend its forex reserves and is considering an option of privatization of another 1% stake in their national company. Besides, Aramco itself is taking actions to invite investments, including the sale of stakes in their producing assets.

Major shale companies of US suffered no smaller losses, which exceeded $60 billion in 2020. Regardless of the started oil prices reflation, the industry failed to recover from losses. At that, the need to compensate the accumulated losses objectively result in the aggregation and consolidation across the industry: major operators acquire smaller companies and launch a more balanced policy aimed at achieving cost reductions rather than production growth.

A number of European majors are setting goals for transformation from petroleum companies to diversified energy companies. The intention is to achieve the above goals particularly by reducing the hydrocarbon production, which will help them achieve the carbon neutrality. A reduction in oil and gas production by majors, along with the inability to supply sufficient scopes of solar and wind energy to the market may lead to a new wave of mergers. Rosneft CEO believes that consolidation of majors would enable increasing investments in energy transformation, enhancing their competitive positions and improving their bankability.

STABILITY OF OIL SUPPLY AT RISK

With the growing scale of vaccination and reducing impact of the pandemic on the global economy, the demand for oil will recover and we have to be prepared for that, Igor Sechin said in his report.

The demand for energy will keep growing, and new waves of virus disease can only slow down this process, but these cannot stop it, Rosneft CEO said. Nevertheless, the long-term stability of oil supplies is at risk due to underinvestment. This is due to both requirements of various stakeholders to completely cease investments in the petroleum sector and the aspirations of majors to increase shareholder value and shareholder returns through stronger dividend payout and share buyback.

As a result, oil and gas reserves additions have been at their historical minimum over the past years, so that certain deficit of resources can already be forecast. “This trend may become a “new norm” for global majors and result in resource base depletion. The world runs the risk of facing an acute deficit of oil and gas,” Igor Sechin said.

A similar scenario has already taken place in the metallurgical industry. The major producers of iron ore understated the demand, and the resulted underinvestment in the industry caused the deficit and have actually doubled iron ore prices by now.

Following these events, CITIBANK made a statement in their report that humankind understates the importance and value of oil and gas for the global economy, Rosneft CEO said. According to the Bank, the current contribution of petroleum companies to the global GDP for the first time exceeded their share in the overall capitalization of the global market. “That is, the value the petroleum industry creates for the world exceeds the scope of investments it receives. The world consumes oil, but is not ready to invest in it,” Igor Sechin said.

THE PROBLEM OF INTERFUEL COMPETITION

Igor Sechin noted that the world is at the crossroads because of the strategic issue of interfuel competition. According to him, the so-called “green” energy is already a significant force. It became especially visible during the period of oil market volatility last year when the capitalization profile of green companies considerably outpaced the performance of both petroleum majors and the market in general.

The Asia-Pacific Region becomes a development locomotive of renewable energy, given that its renewable energy capacity gains have been several folds higher than that of Europe and the USA over the past 10 years. According to analysts, this trend is going to remain over the next 10 years. This is going to be a well-balanced growth that will take place at the same time with the development of conventional energy.

“It is important that the continued motivation of the green energy industry does not substitute its actual economic efficiency,” Rosneft CEO said.

Thus, the subsidizing of wind and solar energy generation, which saw a 5-fold increase in EU over the 10-year period and actually reached 50 billion Euros per annum, while its scope of generation increased only 3.6 times over the same period. At the same time, despite considerable investments, the renewable energy sector has not become a meaningful reserve of global economic development.

A major challenge has been the lack of technology needed to implement plans for energy transformation and the transition to a low-carbon economy. According to IEA, about half of the low carbon energy technologies that currently undergo development will only reach the stage of prototypes or pilot projects by 2050. Even by 2070, 30% of such technologies will still require fine-tuning, hence, investments, prior to launching their commercial operation.

It will take decades to develop commercial cost-effective technologies. At the same time, the above means a strong demand for investments: according to IEA, it is about $4 trillion per annum, which is equivalent to 4% of the global GDP.

Moreover, new technologies will require a multiplication of the production of certain metals. In May this year, IEA assessed the growth of the global demand for metals required for the growing EV production and power storage: the demand for lithium will see a more than 40-fold increase, the demand for cobalt and nickel will increase about 20-fold by 2040.

Such a considerable growth invites doubts about the sufficiency of the current resources, or investments in exploration and production of these metals. At that, the production of about 80% of ore minerals required for the above metals is either monopolized or located in unstable regions, whilst processing capacities are concentrated in a very limited number of countries, Sechin emphasized.

Increased demand will inevitably lead to prices skyrocketing. At this, IEA notes that if the prices for nickel and lithium double in size, this will work off the anticipated reduction in the unit cost of battery production associated with the doubled production scope.

As a result, the low cost-effectiveness of low-carbon solutions places an additional burden on the consumer. Having received a preferential access to the power grids, generating companies are shoving the burden of their high costs, particularly associated with redundancy, to ordinary consumers, by way of increasing the tariffs. Green tariffs are quite often overstated unreasonably due to the need for repaying the growing debt of the companies generating so-called “green” energy.

Igor Sechin believes that the speedy energy transition proclaimed by some environmentalists and politicians firstly requires the implementation of renewable energy sources at such high pace that is unrealistic, and secondly, brings up the issues of storage, and assurance of generation reliability and stability.

For instance, the alternative energy’s instability was vividly evident in Texas in February, where the impeller blades were failing, the solar panels being snow-bound, and the gas prices skyrocketing.

“This example yet again proves the point that we have tried to communicate on numerous occasions, about the need for developing the energy industry in a balanced manner, avoiding placing focus only on the alternative generation, and about extremely high costs associated with ensuring stable supplies of wind and solar energy,” Rosneft CEO said.

According to some assessments, American consumers have already overpaid $125 billion for electric energy because of the state policy promoting the renewable energy sources.

A dramatic shift of the American energy policy towards renewable energy sources triggered criticism from Congress. The US Administration is abusing its powers and being guided by rather coercive than legal principles in their attempts to “hinder energy companies’ access to financial resources”. These actions distort the tasks of financial regulators and harm investors by casting doubt on the quality and reliability of the reporting standards and the information disclosing system under SEC Standards, Sechin explained.

Thus, new tools emerge and behavioral models are created that enable manipulating the price of shares. “The question remains open, as to which interests are such investors guided by. Do they have a hidden agenda of making money on the shares market volatility by creating negative publicity? May they ultimately aim at forcing management of the companies to buy shares from them at a higher price, to avoid the counteraction and pressure from so-called greenmailers?” Rosneft CEO wondered.

An implication of such pressure is majors’ exit from a number of petroleum projects; over the past 3 years, they divested assets for the amount in excess of $70 billion.

The public status of the global majors puts them into a position where they have no mandate not only for development but also for sustain. At the same time, this plays into the hands of unregulated market players and provides new impetus to national companies, which will be able to fill the niche, Sechin believes. “National companies are more insistent in achieving the strategic goals and ensuring the market stability. Objectively, the state-run companies and nonpublic companies are less dependent today from the stock market’s volatile mood,” Rosneft CEO said.

ROSNEFT REDUCES ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT

In his speech, Igor Sechin detailed the Company’s activities to reduce emissions. Rosneft is implementing the Carbon Management Plan 2035. The document provides for a 30% reduction in emissions intensity across Upstream, prevention of emission of 20 mmt of greenhouse gases, ensuring zero routine APG flaring and reducing the methane emissions intensity.

Rosneft has also been increasing its production of gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, and intends to bring its share in the Company’s production to over 25%.

“We also cooperate with BP in the area of carbon management and sustainable development and intend to jointly assess perspectives of a wide range of projects, including use of renewable energy sources, deployment of CO2 recovery, utilization and storage technologies and hydrogen business development,” Igor Sechin said.

“Besides, we discuss with our partners opportunities of establishing a special fund with a view to implement projects aimed at reducing the carbon footprint across the industry,” Rosneft CEO added.

International rating agencies rate high Rosneft’s achievements in the area of sustainable development. The Company takes the leading positions in a number of specialized ratings and continues to achieve rating improvements.

“We are confident that oil and gas producers have to take a balanced and professional approach to energy transition, and to improve their environmental performance,” Rosneft CEO stated.

“GREEN BARRELS” OF VOSTOK OIL PROJECT

In his speech, Igor Sechin noted that the oil from Vostok Oil fields has a uniquely low sulfur content of 0.01-0.04%, which is comparable to the Euro-3 requirement for diesel fuel. According to him, such oil can significantly relieve or completely eliminate the need for separate installations at refineries, thereby significantly reducing greenhouse emissions.

At the design stage, Vostok Oil takes into account the use of advanced technologies for environmental protection - from the stage of drilling to specialized solutions for oil pipelines and tankers that will export oil. The design solutions provide for the complete utilization of associated petroleum gas, which will ensure the “carbon footprint” of the project to be 75% lower than that of other major new oil projects in the world.

“Therefore, we have every reason to state that this project will yield “green barrels” of oil”, Igor Sechin said.

He noted that as a responsible and cost-effective oil producer, Rosneft is creating a foundation for sustainable future growth by investing in the reduction of carbon emissions, building production of cleaner fuels and increasing gas share in its portfolio.

ROSNEFT IS OPEN TO COOPERATION

Igor Sechin in his speech also noted that the investment community gave a high appraisal to the Vostok Oil Project, the program for selling “tail” assets, and jointly with other initiatives of the Company comprising maintenance of a high dividend level and share buyback program, this Project has contributed to the growth in Rosneft’s investment attractiveness and capitalization.

The head of the Company reminded that Rosneft executes a number of first-class oil and gas projects with low unit costs of production at the level of $2.6 per barrel of oil equivalent in compliance with the highest environmental standards.

“We are willing to share the story of success and we welcome new western and eastern partners, equipment and service suppliers with their best practice and experience,” Sechin said.

BP CEO Bernard Looney in his speech supported the position of Rosneft CEO. He noted the long-term cooperation between BP and Rosneft. According to him, the partnership between market majors, in general, is an important component of the industry that facilitates its development.

In this regard, the BP CEO also pointed out three trends that are presently shaping the reality of the energy market. “Electrification is the first trend. I think everyone will agree that today the world is gradually switching to the use of electricity and is much faster switching to renewables. Clean energy, as Igor Ivanovich has said. Indeed, this has a lot of difficulties, especially in terms of their reliability and availability,” he said. The second trend Looney called high-quality requirements for products consumed by customers. And one more trend is diversification of energy resources. “Now we are coming to a world that will not have one dominating energy resource, as it used to be with coal, and then with oil. This was the diversification and the whole landscape change a lot,” he explained.

In his opinion, in future, the industry cooperation will have priority since the demand for energy and for energy resources continues to grow. He thinks that this demand is becoming more complex: customers demand more from energy suppliers, they dictate where, when and how they want to get these resources, and the solutions offered to them are becoming more diversified.

“And this way, partnerships of different kinds will play a big role, partnerships with different companies, but also partnerships with companies outside of our industry. We will use their experience, their skills, let’s take carbohydrates, for instance, we are now trying to ensure reliable shipments using digital and other new technologies, therefore, we receive an opportunity for cooperation with different technological companies. That’s actually what we are doing here in Russia, for example, with Rosneft,” Bernard Looney stated.

The Senior Vice-President of Exxon Neil Chapman in his speech noted that the oil and gas industry has long been working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and today the industry is taking the lead in the transition to low-carbon energy, investing billions of dollars in the development of “green technologies”. “But during the transition period, the oil companies play a double role: on one hand, it’s necessary to reduce carbon footprint in order for the world to have a chance to solve problems indicated in the Paris Agreement, and on the other hand, in the coming decades, it is necessary to ensure reliable supplies of energy resources so that developing countries can improve their living standards,” Chapman said.

The subject of reliable energy supplies was also mentioned in the speech of the Chairman of the Chinese National Oil and Gas Corporation, PetroChina Chairman Dai Houliang. “Taking into account that the supply of new energy resources is still unstable, the oil and gas industry has advantages both in terms of advanced technologies, reliability of infrastructure, and the scale of supplies. That is why in the global energy future development of different energy carriers will go on a complimentary, balanced basis,” he said. According to the PetroChina CEO, China will continue to deepen cooperation with colleagues from Russia and other countries, both in the oil and gas sector and in the new energy sector, in order to jointly resist climate change and support sustainable development of the industry.

Robert Dudley, Chairman of the OGCI Oil and Gas Climate Initiative and former BP CEO, thinks that Collaboration among the majors can contribute to the achievement of the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement by 2050. In his speech, he noted that all global companies must join forces in order to overcome the climate challenges facing humanity. Among the top-priority steps, Dudley highlighted reduction of methane and CO2 emissions, implementation of smart low-carbon solutions, and investment in new technologies. “Society today wants cleaner sources of energy, that’s fine. And we have to take these changes seriously,” the former BP head said.

“Many companies are already taking active steps in this direction - for example, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil. And Rosneft is a leader in this respect. We have seen the figures, and we’re impressed. Companies like Rosneft and other leaders can play a very important role in solving these problems. It seems to me that if we continue to work in this direction, we will definitely make sure that our consumers are satisfied and happy,” Dudley concluded.

The oil and gas industry role in the decarbonization process was a key theme of ONGC Videsh CEO Alok Kumar Gupta’s report. “We are facing the need to decarbonize products made from hydrocarbons. And this trend will grow especially given the hydrocarbon sector investments problems,” the top manager said. He believes the industry is on the cusp of a paradigm shift that will make oil less of a problem and more of an opportunity. “Soon we will see the birth of a new, cleaner, greener oil and gas industry,” Alok Kumar Gupta said in his remarks.

“There is no doubt that hydrocarbons will be used for many, many decades to come and will play an important role in the economy. At Baker Hughes, we believe that LNG and natural gas will expand and displace oil in the energy mix,” said Baker Hughes Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Simonelli in his report. At the same time, the goal is to decarbonize the economy, and technology will play the leading role here, top manager said. “We believe technology is the answer to the challenges of transformation, and we welcome working with everyone in the industry to achieve that goal,” Simonelli said.

“Green technology will play an important role in accelerating the energy industry’s transition to a green future,” Vitol CEO Russell Hardy said. “As an investor in a number of renewable energy projects, including solar, wind and natural gas, in Europe, America and Asia, Vitol is able to identify the shortcomings of these technologies. First and foremost, it is the potential mismatch between supply and demand. Hydrocarbons can be used to generate energy when it is needed, unlike renewable energy, which depends on the weather, the Vitol chief said.

Possible energy shortages could be a significant barrier to economic recovery, Jeremy Weir, Chairman and CEO of Trafigura, said in a statement. “The energy transformation is rapidly gaining momentum. But we will need uninterrupted access to cheap energy, including hydrocarbons, for years to come to avoid creating barriers to economic growth, especially for developing countries”, Weir said. Even during the pandemic, when the whole world was in recession, the global economy consumed 80 million barrels of oil per day, and this should be taken into account, he believes. “As Igor Ivanovich accurately noted in his speech, investment in oil production has fallen to the point where existing reserves are not only not being replaced, but are being depleted. Against such a backdrop, Rosneft’s investment in the largest mainland oil and gas production project, Vostok Oil, is particularly significant, and we at Trafigura are proud and honored to participate,” Weir said. “Vostok Oil already produces low-cost, low-carbon, high-quality oil that will be in demand for years to come. Rosneft plans to reduce its carbon footprint and this will certainly guarantee demand for Vostok Oil’s products,” the Trafigura CEO said.

The key topic of Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg’s speech was the cost of the energy transition. “We’re all talking about energy transformation, but how will we have to pay for it? And how much will it cost? Currently, renewable energy sources’ share is about 3,000 GW. But we need to increase the generation volume up to 27,000 GW to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The solar energy production must be increased 20-fold, and wind power generation 11-fold by 2030 in order to achieve these goals. Moreover, the world has to manufacture some 50 million electric vehicles a year in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Accord,” Glencore CEO said. “There are times when the world sets goals with no consideration for consequences. Igor Ivanovich spoke about the situation on the metals market. And we see it happening with coal. In April last year, the price of coal went up from $50 per tonne to $125 per tonne due to the withdrawal of investment in the industry and the widespread cancellation of projects. So the important question we have to ask ourselves is: can the world afford the transition towards renewable sources at all?” Glasenberg commented.

Rovnag Abdullaev, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, believes that today, gas is a de facto non-alternative energy resource during the transition to an energy-friendly economy. “Over time, the consumption of traditional fossil fuels will decrease. And it is important at this time to achieve a greener use of hydrocarbon fuels, including that by improving energy efficiency along the entire chain, as well as by implementing projects that ensure the absorption of greenhouse gases,” Abdullaev commented.

Jay Prior, Vice President for Business Development of Chevron, believes that affordable, reliable ever-cleaner energy is essential to achieving a more prosperous and sustainable world for all people; however, oil and natural gas will have a vital role to play in any global energy transition. “The challenge before our industry is meeting global growing energy demand while advancing the global net-zero ambitions of the Paris Agreement,” the oil executive said.

The main topic of the speech by Karin Kneissl, independent member of the Rosneft Board of Directors, was the development of electromobility. “The electric engine is not just the production of electricity; it is also the electrical grid and its various vulnerabilities. It is important to remember that all these tens of thousands, even millions of electric cars we are planning now require not only the electricity, but also a reliable electrical grid”, Kneissl noted. “Our grid runs across Europe to Northern Morocco. And as soon as it comes to 47 Hz, as let’s say, happened this afternoon, then we find ourselves in such a quasi-blackout situation. Therefore, when we are planning, it is necessary to think about the grid in order to ensure that there are no such blackouts, which very clearly, we understand, can occur. It’s a very possible scenario”, the expert said.

The Managing Director and Head of the Analytical Research Department in Russia at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Karen Kostanyan also spoke about the need for a balanced energy transition in his report. “When we talk about the energy switch, we mainly mention the production, but rarely speak about consuming. But let’s think, what growth in consumption will we face in the future? How much will consumption increase in ten years if today we are already changing our mobile phones every year? Many participants of this Panel have already mentioned the fact that the energy transition at the moment doesn’t take into account the role the developing countries will play in this process. It’s obvious that by 2050 the global economy will be 2-3 times larger. And our responsibility is to address these demands, but now developing countries are growing, the experts thinks. According to him, there is currently a significant social pressure on the oil and gas sector, which leads to a reduction in investments in this industry by 60%. “This means that we will actually reach the maximum of our capacities next year, or maybe in three years. And in 5-10 years we will reach a certain peak, which may be followed by a crisis. Therefore, zero emissions - it’s great, it’s good that we are talking about it and taking certain steps, but it needs to be done in a way that this transition and discussion of this transition are balanced”, Karen Kostanyan said.

REPORT “GLOBAL ENERGY AT THE CROSSROADS” FOR THE I.I. SECHIN'S SPEECH AT THE 24TH SAINT PETERSBURG INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC FORUM

PRESENTATION OF I.I. SECHIN'S REPORT AT THE SPIEF ENERGY PANEL

Rosneft
Information Division
June 5, 2021