Igor Sechin states that the West revises its "green" goals

Governments, businesses and investors in Western countries are beginning to revise their approach to the "green" agenda, which is costing too much, told Igor Sechin, Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, at the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

As he said, Europeans are already noticing, “their countries' climate policies are hitting their own pockets, driving up energy, real estate, transportation and food prices”. As a result, Europe's green agenda bill will soon exceed half a trillion euros, and this is far from a final figure, Sechin said. According to the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the management of more than half of the companies in Germany have a negative attitude towards the energy transition.

“Some EU countries, such as Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden and others, are already willing to reconsider their approach to meeting the goals of the so-called Green Pact for Europe. In addition, the World Bank, in a recent report, pushed the deadline for achieving the green transition goals ten years further, to 2060. We are convinced that the emission targets will be revised many more times”, stated the head of Rosneft.

Speaking about representatives of major businesses, Igor Sechin noted that in the context of revising its own approach to the green agenda, Shell has abandoned its goal of reducing emissions by 45% by 2035 and plans to cut staff in its climate change divisions.

In addition, the "green transition" had a negative impact on the position of the British BP company. The company's bet on leadership in this field did not work out, and since the announcement of the new strategy to achieve carbon neutrality in 2020, the company's stock price has fallen by 3% as the European and American supermajors' performance has grown more than 20-60%. “Investors have openly referred to BP shares as “dead money”», Sechin noted.

With this regard, the company's management has already publicly stated that its 2030 production decrease target may be adjusted, and they do not rule out additional exploration activity or acquisition of new oil and gas reserves, at the same time writing off significant resource base in Russia.

The Rosneft head noted that over the year, BP's total debt grew by 12% and exceeded $64 billion as of the end of Q1 2024. This is the maximum value for the last two years; moreover, it exceeds the combined figure of Exxon and Chevron (for the two companies USD 62 billion). Such a trend led to the fact that the credit rating of the British company fell to the lowest among the supermajors due to high debt load and weak balance sheet.

At the same time, Igor Sechin said that investors are disenchanted with the green transition as well. Thus, the largest financial market operator and an apologist for the green transition –BlackRock investment fund – has found other applications for its investments than "green" technologies. This includes the U.S. defense industry.

“Its investments in the five largest defense industry companies alone exceed USD 20 billion, that were originally intended for the green transition”, Sechin stated.

The head of Rosneft noted that BlackRock have planted its representatives directly into the White House administration, such as Brian Deese - director of the National Economic Council, Adewale Adeyemo - first deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and Mike Pyle - counselor to the U.S. vice president.

Information & Advertising Department
Rosneft
June 8, 2024