The Defence Industry and the Fuel and Energy Sector: Inter-Enterprise Collaboration for Import Substitutional and Technological Development

The business programme of the Russian Energy Week International Forum will include a session entitled "The Defence Industry and the Fuel and Energy Sector: Inter-Enterprise Collaboration for Import Substitutional and Technological Development". The forum will take place in Moscow on 13–15 October 2021 at the Manezh Exhibition Hall. REW 2021 is organized by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the Roscongress Foundation and the Moscow City Government.

Ensuring the national technological sovereignty of the Russian fuel and energy sectors today is one of the key conditions for the country's energy security and economic growth. To further the transition of the Russian energy sector to the use of domestic high-tech products, it is necessary to expand cooperation between industry companies and defence industry enterprises. Strengthening the potential for their mutually beneficial collaboration will enable the fuel and energy sectors to reduce the need for products that are critical for sustainable development. At the same time, the defence industry will ensure production diversification amid a decline in state defence orders and build up competencies in civilian sectors. There are already successful cases of such cooperation. Under previously reached agreements, defence industry enterprises are producing solutions that are in high demand for geological exploration and hydrocarbon production, including "difficult" oil. However, the prospects for partnership development are still tremendous and require cross-industry cooperation, as well as finding ways to mitigate financial, human and technological risks.

"One of the key areas of production diversification for defence industry enterprises is cooperation with the Russian fuel and energy sector, where today there is still a need to introduce advanced import-substituting projects. The defence industry as a whole is showing successful growth in the share of civilian production, with a target of reaching a share of 50% by 2030," stressed Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.

During the discussion, experts will discuss which implemented projects of cooperation between the fuel and energy sector and the military-industrial complex can be considered successful, what the future prospects for cooperation are, whether there is an optimal business model that enables the most effective use of the competences of the military-industrial complex in the interests of the fuel and energy sectors, and what state support measures are needed to accelerate diversification.