On June 29, 2020 a webinar "Energy Transition and Energy Security: Factor COVID-2020" was held.

The discussion at the following NNF.digital event was focused on the issues of transition from fossil fuels, mainstreaming the environmental agenda, as well as prospects and new challenges in the context of energy security in the current environment. The webinar is a joint project of the National Oil and Gas Forum, Neftegaz, RENWEX and EXPOCENTRE AO in partnership with the RSPP Committee on Energy Policy and Energy Efficiency and Petroleum Advisory Forum.

The webinar was moderated by Sergey Yatsenya, Director of the National Oil and Gas Forum; Yuri Stankevich, Deputy Chairman of the RSPP Committee on Energy Policy and Energy Efficiency; and Polina Nemirovchenko, Director of Business Development and Marketing, EY. The event was held in the format of two thematic blocks - "Energy Transition: A New View and Factor COVID-2020" and "Energy Security of Russia under the New Model of Energy Transition: Challenges, Risks and Threats".

Tatyana Mitrova, Director of the Skolkovo Energy Center at the Moscow School of Management, during the first session "Global Decarbonisation, Climate Agenda and New Challenges for Russia", identified as the biggest threat to the Russian economy the physical impact of climate, which is now often missed from the agenda, although it is an important part of adaptation of the energy transition. Alexey Loza, Partner, Head of EY's Fuel and Energy Services for Central, Eastern, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia, continued the discussion on decarbonisation, noting that the future value of energy companies will largely depend on their ability to adapt once energy transition is completed.

Yuri Andreyev, Executive Director of Petroleum Advisory Forum, stressed the importance of the topic under discussion. In particular, he mentioned the possible role of international energy companies in energy transition in Russia.

Francois Borgida, Vice-President Country Delegate Russia, in his presentation gave a detailed account of Total's work in the field of decarbonisation and energy transition in the world and in Russia. During his speech, the speaker noted the key role of Russia as a country with great potential for the development of alternative energy sources, mentioning that in the coming years Total plans to increase investment in the RES sector, in particular in Russia, up to 20%.

Alexey Zhikharev, Director of the Renewable Energy Development Association/VYGON Consulting Partner opened the second session "RES development: main low-carbon trends and demand for traditional energy resources". As an important change in the energy transition, the speaker noted the involvement of traditional companies in renewable energy, which in the future may contribute to the growth of investment attractiveness of the sector.

Alexander Titov, Head of Petroleum Market Research at the Energy Department of the Institute of Energy and Finance, made a presentation on the peculiarities of energy transition in the segment of liquid hydrocarbons in the post-pandemic environment. Danila Bochkarev, Chief Researcher, EastWest Institute (Brussels) spoke about the focus of energy transition on natural gas, nuclear energy, hydrogen, renewable energy sources, which can be adjusted in individual countries under the influence of the coronavirus, as well as the structure of energy consumption in each country.

During the third session "Energy Transition and Transformation of Business Models of "Commodity Corporations" the approaches of corporations to energy transition, as well as the transformation of companies' activities in crisis conditions were discussed. Sergey Glushkin, Junior Partner, Bain & Company, said: "Today's understanding of energy transition should not be narrowed down to the transformation of individual energy sectors, it is primarily a global transition from a carbon footprint to a low-carbon one. Companies in this context first of all resort to operational improvement, second to carbon compensation, third to readiness to change the balance of production in the direction of renewable energy and biomass".

Georgy Safonov, Director of the Center for the Economy of Environment and Natural Resources at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, spoke about the possibilities of energy transition in Russia and mentioned specific projects that could be initiated. Also, in SWOT analysis he outlined the risks and problems that hamper the development of this topic in Russia.

Irina Pominova, Deputy Head of the Department for Fuel and Energy and Housing and Utilities Services (Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation), commented at the end of the session: "Environmental responsibility of companies is influenced by several drivers - the national energy policy of the country, the publicity of the company", noting the peculiarities of forming the environmental agenda both in Russia and the United States, and among the OPEC countries.

The second part of the event - "Energy Security of Russia under the New Model of Energy Transition: Challenges, Risks and Threats" - took place after a break, during which listeners had the opportunity to ask questions to the speakers. Konstantin Simonov, Director of the National Energy Security Fund, opened the first session of the second part of the webinar with a report on energy security risks associated with the completion of energy transition. The expert expressed concern about insufficient development of the national sector of new energy, which, in his opinion, may lead to excessive competition in the global market as technologies adapt to international standards. Denis Borisov, Director of the Moscow Oil and Gas Center, EY supplemented his speech by commenting on the importance of having alternative development scenarios that will be the basis for selecting adaptability mechanisms in a changing environment. Vyacheslav Mishchenko, Head of the Working Group of the Expert Council on Technological Development of the Oil and Gas Industry under the Russian Ministry of Energy, spoke about the competition of a new form of LNG delivery with the oil market.

The webinar concluded with a session on "Innovative development and technological sovereignty". Oleg Zhdaneev, Head of the Center for Competence of Technological Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Russian Ministry of Energy, highlighted the issue of creation of scientific and technological councils: "For the last years, a lot has been invested in the regional enterprises, the colleagues want to diversify, that is why we found a response to the formation of scientific and technological councils, which will determine the most promising areas in individual regions and support them". Mikhail Kuznetsov, Head of the Department for Technology Partnerships and Import Substitution of Equipment and Technologies at Gazprom Neft, spoke about the prospects and steps being taken to develop effective production standards for the domestic energy sector.

The speaker noted that the need to work in this area was acknowledged while analysing foreign experience in the operation of standards and the ineffectiveness of local GOSTs: "The strategic problem was caused by the indiscriminate use of foreign standardization systems, ignoring GOSTs, so we decided to create an institute for the development of new standardization systems in the Russian Federation. Daria Kozlova, Director of Consulting in the field of state regulation of the fuel and energy complex, VYGON Consulting, pointed out the importance of data security during the implementation of energy transition, in particular, due to the large amount of data available to the industry, and also noted the need to develop clear and consolidated steps within the industry on the priorities of energy transition. The discussion was concluded by Mikhail Smirnov, President of the Association of Innovative Enterprises in the Energy Industry "EnergoInnovation".

The discussion was attended by representatives of public authorities, specialized companies, industry unions and associations, leading expert organisations and media.

You can learn about the online events schedule for 2020 on the official websites: http://oilandgasforum.ru, NNF.digital, as well as by phone: +7 (495) 640-34-64 or by e-mail: mail@oilandgasforum.ru. As part of the planned webinars we invite all interested companies to cooperation.