Alexander Novak invites heads of global oil and gas majors to REW 2017

July 10, 2017

Istanbul (Turkey), 10 July – Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, spoke at the plenary session of the 22nd World Petroleum Congress “Bridges to Our Energy Future”.

The discussion was attended by Darren Woods, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of ExxonMobil, Amin H. Nasser, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, and Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc.

The participants focused on the directions of world energy development. Alexander Novak claimed that, in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, in the “age of electricity”, the energy source is not that important. What is important is that it must be available upon demand, competitive in price, and have clear and generally accepted consumer qualities.

“The main question we are facing is how we can guarantee an uninterrupted supply of energy to the world economy, irrespective of the political and economic volatility”, said the Russian Minister of Energy.

Among the aspects affecting energy markets highlighted by the Minister were evolution of the fuel balance, technological progress, and the rules being shaped for trade, financing and technological exchange on the energy markets.

The participants in the plenary session arrived at a consensus that the world’s demand for energy will grow, though the structure and geography of this demand will change significantly. Alexander Novak assumed that, by 2040, the demand for energy will have increased by at least 25%. At the same time, growth rates are likely to decline, largely owing to technological progress and increased energy efficiency.

“There will be a deep reform of the market’s geographical structure, with the expected stagnation or reduction in energy consumption in OECD countries, the centre of consumption growth will shift to the AMEA Region, where consumption will grow at least 1.5-fold”, said the Minister.

The Head of the Russian Ministry of Energy also noted that renewable energy sources will be the fastest growing sources of energy: “The share of RES and nuclear energy will have increased in the world energy balance from 15% to 23% by 2035.”

Among the key trends in technological progress, Alexander Novak named energy, digital and biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics, materials science, as well as infrastructure and transport reformation. “Development of such technologies requires a new level of collaboration between scientific teams, manufacture, and government structures. In this context, it is possible to maintain competitiveness only by joining forces with like-minded people”, highlighted the Minister.

According to the Russian Minister of Energy, only open trade links and technological collaboration based on commonly agreed rules and standards will contribute to development of the global economy and international cooperation: “Progress stipulates cooperation between market participants during joint project implementation, creation of new mechanisms for joint situation monitoring and analysis, financing and execution of research and development activities.”

As part of the Congress, heads of national oil committees of the World Oil Council were given official invitation from Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak to take part in the Russian Energy Week-2017l.

The Russian Energy Week will take place in Moscow at the Central Exhibition Hall ‘Manege’ on 3–7 October 2017. The event aims at demonstrating the prospects for the Russian fuel and energy industry and realising the potential for international cooperation. The Forum will be attended by heads of major global and Russian energy companies.

 

The Roscongress Foundation is the operator of the Russian Energy Week.

Source: https://minenergo.gov.ru

.