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Rosneft's CEO Gave A Speech About The Challenges In The Global Energy Transition And Energy Industry

During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024 (SPIEF 2024), Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin shared his analysis on the challenges the world faces in achieving energy transition. He also highlighted the complexity of global energy transition strategies. Sechin invited the international community to reevaluate the available energy transition strategies.

"Energy transition needs to be balanced and focused to meet the majority's interests, ensuring energy consumption growth in the coming years," said Igor Sechin. According to him, decision-makers need to ensure adequacy, affordability, and reliability of energy sources to achieve this. In fact, consumers today are not only concerned about emissions but also about the security of energy supply from new sources, as well as the reliability and convenience of using new technologies. Unfortunately, the existing green transition strategies do not meet these needs.

Furthermore, the CEO of Russia's leading oil company stated that electric vehicles, although considered one of the best strategies for energy transition initiatives, are not a panacea for all environmental challenges. The demand for electric vehicles has slowed down worldwide, despite the efforts made by governments around the world, especially Indonesia, to support this industry. This is because many people prefer to wait for cheaper electric car models, causing the market to move slowly.

In the case of Indonesia, the sales of electric cars have indeed shown an increase compared to the previous year. According to detikOto's report in December 2023, until November 2023, the sales of electric cars reached 13 thousand units. As a comparison, in the previous year, the sales of electric cars only reached 10 thousand units. However, the number of electric vehicles is still relatively small compared to the total vehicle sales, which reached 900 thousand units by November 2023. "Currently, the number of users is still low. The government's target is to have two million electric cars and 13 million electric motorcycles by 2030, which will account for 10 percent of the population," said Deputy Coordinator for Infrastructure and Transportation Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Marves), Rachmat Kaimuddin, in a YouTube video by Marves.

Regarding the role of Rosneft and Russia in the energy transition and the global energy industry, Igor Sechin highlights the potential for energy development and efforts to strengthen Russia's position in the global energy market. "Amid global uncertainties, Russia remains one of the leaders in the energy sector. Despite facing various challenges, the country continues to explore and develop energy potential to strengthen its position in the global market. Recently, the country has also directed energy exports to rapidly developing markets in the Asia-Pacific region. This reorientation is important to maintain economic stability and capitalize on growth opportunities in the region," he said. Currently, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than 80% of Russia's oil exports.

During his opening speech at the Energy Panel of SPIEF 2024, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin also emphasized that, for the first time in decades, Europe is facing a new reality where European society is becoming poorer.

According to Sechin, despite government subsidies being available, the high gas prices force European households to reduce gas consumption to an unprecedented extent. As a result, Europe is meeting its emission reduction targets by directly reducing energy consumption and slowing down economic growth.