Russia needs to maintain its leading position in the energy sector by being responsive to changes in global energy sector and developing new markets - PM Medvedev

GORKI, March 18. /TASS/. Russia needs to maintain its leading position in the energy sector by being responsive to changes in global energy sector and developing new markets, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday during the meeting on National Energy Strategy until 2035. "It is important to properly assess the changes that are taking place in the global energy sector. We cannot ignore it," he said. "I hope we all understand that usually every 50-60 years there is an energy revolution. New fuels emerge that will eventually lead to new results. Thus, we need to take into account new producers, technologies and developments," he said. Medvedev encouraged the representatives of domestic fuel and energy sector "to increase its presence in new, fast-growing markets," and to not do it to the prejudice of European consumers. "The Asia-Pacific region is very important. The challenge for the next 10 years is to significantly increase the oil and gas supply," he said. "We have to maintain the leading position in the global energy sector at a time when the volume and the geography of our external energy demand have changed significantly," Medvedev said. He added that "it is necessary to pursue a flexible export policy in order to expand the commodity structure of energy exports, minimize costs, rapidly develop transport infrastructure for the development of new fields and export supplies." At the same time, Medvedev warned that the previous National Energy Strategy has already lost its relevance and there will be less "easy money" in the industry. "It is obvious that in the future we will have to rely on the accumulated potential in the energy sector," Medvedev said. According to him, the old model "does not work anymore." He noted that the National Energy Strategy until 2035 should include forecasts for energy production and consumption, and propose solutions for problems in the energy sector, many of which still exist according to the Prime Minister. Medvedev admitted that most of these issues are common to all sectors of the Russian economy and that they "inherited" them from the Soviet economy: outdated equipment and infrastructure, technological underdevelopment, and others. "In recent years, these factors slowed domestic economic growth down, increased production and transportation costs," Medvedev said. Read more