On October, 11-13, the 6th international forum Russian Energy Week was held in Moscow. It continues to gain popularity every year. This year, more than 4 thousand participants from 60 countries took part in the forum. The key discussion topic was “The New Reality of World Energy: Creating the Future”, which was divided into 4 elements of transformation of the Russian fuel and power complex.
The first element was related to the domestic market development. During the plenary session, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, said that a top priority is to ensure the national market. It is necessary to consistently work on the qualitative development of our own market and increase its capacity, and the President highlighted that there are all opportunities for this. In 2022, a record amount of power consumption was recorded in Russia; in 2023, this record may be updated. According to the President, when the power consumption grows, the economy grows as well.
The second element of discussion was the development of deep processing of oil and gas. The strategic, system task of the Russian fuel and energy complex is to create maximum added value and develop deep processing of oil and gas. Currently, large-scale oil and gas chemical projects are being implemented, including those with government support. Among similar projects, we can highlight the commissioning of a petrochemical plant in Tobolsk, increasing the capacity of the Amur gas processing plant and the construction of the facility for processing ethane-containing gas in Ust-Luga village, Leningrad region.
The third element of the discussion was sovereignty of the industry. The possibility was discussed not to limit this concept to the technological sovereignty only, but to look more broadly, including financial and personnel components.
Vladimir Putin outlined new routes and directions for the export of Russian energy resources, which became the final element of the discussion at the forum. We are talking about developing the infrastructure for exporting Russian oil to the growing markets of the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and Latin America.
Russian Energy Week in 2023 remains one of the most influential international public platforms for discussing fuel and energy issues.