Igor Sechin: alternative energy sources are not yet able to ensure reliability of supply

Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, while delivering a keynote speech at the Energy Panel of the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, reminded of the research conducted back in 1976 by the future winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Academician Pyotr Kapitsa.  Using basic physical principles, the scientist predicted the probability of a global energy crisis due to the lack of efficiency of all types of alternative energy.

“As Kapitsa argued, the key characteristic of any type of energy is the density of its energy stream. By this parameter, such fossil fuels as oil (provides 195 W/m2) and gas (482 W/m2) are far ahead of solar energy (6.6 W/m2) and wind energy
(1.8 W/m2) that, among other disadvantages, have an uneven or, to put it in more scientific terms, stochastic nature of energy generation”, Igor Sechin said,

Rosneft CEO noted that from the studies available at the moment, hydrogen is considered to be the most promising type of "clean" fuel.

“However, there is still no commercially feasible production technology, logistics and, most importantly, sales markets for it. It is also necessary to take into account the low efficiency so far due to the fact that during hydrogen production the energy consumption spent for electrolysis is greater than the amount of energy obtained at the output. Thus, alternative energy sources are not yet able to ensure either the reliability of supply or optimum technical and economic performance”, Igor Sechin noted.

 The head of Rosneft also said that the very statement about the link between emissions and climate change requires an objective assessment, and without it, giving priority to the anthropogenic factor in climate change has no grounds.

The Earth's climatic cycles develop according to the natural laws inherent in any cosmic body and are influenced by such basic factors as the condition of the atmosphere, the activity of the Sun, the distance of the Earth's orbit from it, the angle of inclination and position of other planets relative to our planet, and many others.

At that climatic changes on the planet occur, among other things, as a result of fundamental natural phenomena. A distinguished example – "super volcanoes", whose eruption of lava and ash emissions exceed 1,000 cubic kilometers. Not only these disasters can radically change the landscape, but they can also provoke sudden cold spells, the so-called "volcanic winters". For example, as a result of the eruption occurred 74 thousand years ago of the Indonesian supervolcano Toba, the global temperature dropped by 3.5-9 degrees Celsius as a result of the release of more than 2 billion tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Comparable eruptions have occurred three times in the Yellowstone Province in the United States, and the last known supervolcanic eruption, Taupo, occurred in New Zealand about 25 thousand years ago.

“According to a number of reputable scientists, such as the Nobel Prize winner in physics John Clauser, the main cause of the Earth's climate change is the natural self-regulation mechanisms of the planet, not the "human factor”, Igor Sechin said.

Over the past 600 million years, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and air temperature have changed continuously without the impact of fossil fuels or human activity. Modern scientists, having analyzed temperature information for ten thousand years, have come to the conclusion that there have been nine warming periods since the end of the last ice age. During seven of them, the temperature on Earth was higher than it is today, the Rosneft head noted.

“The proponents of the anthropogenic factor theory present the energy transition to us as an illusion of saving the world. Now, when we have already accumulated some experience of the energy transition, it is clear that neither its goal nor, accordingly, the preparation for it have been elaborated in accordance with the tasks and needs of the mankind, such as infrastructure, financing, supply of raw materials and availability of the technologies needed for this”, Igor Sechin summed up.

Information & Advertising Department
Rosneft
June 8, 2024