Nothing Will Change Russia's Oil Development, So Greenwash Bullshit Production Hits New High
Russian oil companies have no plans whatsoever to reduce drilling in the far north in order to ease pressure on environment and fight climate change. On the contrary, they have a big number of new Arctic projects in the pipeline. The great advance into the vast and vulnerable region comes as Russia is incorporating the Paris Climate Agreement and as a major energy shift is making headway across the planet. It takes place on the backdrop of dramatic climate change that is about to spin out of control. Even the International Energy Agency in its latest flagship report calls on energy companies to transform in order to halt global warming and meet new realities.
Russia’s powerful oil and gas sector is increasingly feeling the pressure. But the industry leaders have no intention to cut drilling and battle climate change. Instead, they call for ‘climate adaptation’ and argue that new grand projects in the Arctic are developed in a “green” and environmentally friendly manner. The “greenwashing” of new Arctic oil projects was evident in the recent St.Petersburg Economic Forum.
In his keynote speech delivered in the conference, Rosneft leader Igor Sechin stressed that oil from the company’s grand new Arctic project, the Vostok Oil, has a uniquely low sulfur content of only 0.01-0.04% and that the company applies “advanced technologies for environmental protection.” According to Sechin, the “carbon footprint” of the project will be 75 percent lower than that of other major new oil projects in the world. “Therefore, we have every reason to state that this project will yield “green barrels” of oil,” the powerful company leader underlined.
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For Russian energy companies and the government alike it is oil and natural gas that is to remain top priority. And there is a strong skepticism both among industry leaders and in government corridors towards energy transition, as well as climate change as such. In a long interview to Gazprom’s corporate journal in 2020, Deputy Chairman of the company’s Management Committee Oleg Aksyutin expressed doubts that climate change in made-made and that it is triggered by CO2. As a matter of fact, Aksyutin argues that the global trend is not warming, but cooling.
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https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2021/07/great-arctic-greenwash
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