The energy dialogue is one of the most promising mechanisms for building Europe – Russia – Asia inter-civilization bridge, Management Board Chairman of the Russia’s petroleum industry giant, Rosneft Igor Sechin said.
He said this in his keynote address at the opening of the Fourth Eurasian Forum “Innovations and International Integration” in Verona (Italy) on October 22. Eurasian Forum is one of the key forums for developing a dialogue in the Eurasian space.
Sechin opined that it is “Big Eurasia” that historically has been the centre of the world civilization, and global economic growth is concentrated in the territory of this macro-continent.
He said that despite the negative marco-environment and the pressure of sanctions on Russia, the economy of the country has been stable, and the power sector has demonstrated certain growth: both in terms of hydrocarbon production, and export supplies.
In contrast, European power industry is experiencing difficulties, Sechin added.
“Presently, the European refining margin has grown due to slump in feedstock cost. But, generally, this industry has long been facing hard times”. The issue of ensuring economic viability is becoming critical, and in this context, potential expansion of cooperation with Russia is fundamental, Sechin said.
“With long-term contracts for supply of crude of certain quality, refineries will be able to define their strategies for demand-based modernization in a more accurate and efficient way”, the Rosneft Leader said.
The refineries that have stable supplies of crude of the quality which best fits their refining capacities, will get competitive advantages, he added.
Eurasia remains the world’s largest producer and consumer of oil. 59% of the world’s oil reserves and 60% of world’s refining capacities are located there, the Head of Rosneft noted.
World’s two largest oil producers – Russia and Saudi Arabia – are also situated in the Eurasian continent. Even though, production in the region does not cover the demand of Eurasia which accounts for 65% of the world’s oil consumption. The shortage is about 100 mm t of oil per year. This gap will be increasing to reach 500 mm t by 2030.
Thus, oil producers of Eurasia have certain competitive advantage. Sechin stressed that significant re-distribution of energy consumption in favor of the Asian part of the continent is currently going on.
The share of Europe in global primary energy consumption declined from 34% in 1990 tо 19% in 2015, pointed out the Head of Rosneft. At the same time the share of Asia increased from 31% tо 50%.
Consequently, the geography of activity of Rosneft and Russia, as a whole, changes in the direction of the APR countries.
Nevertheless, in the opinion of Igor Sechin, the natural historical synergy of the European and Russian civilizations offers hope for resumption of the full-scale dialog in the near future. In our view, Rosneft alone can offer European partners to participate in the projects for the amount of about $100 billin, the Rosneft Head said.
Sechin termed the partnership between Rosneft, Pirelli and ChemChina as one of the examples of integral cooperation in Eurasian space.
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