Minister N. Shulginov reported to the State Duma of Russia on the results of the development of the energy industry

On March 15, 2023, the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Nikolai Shulginov, as part of the “Government Hour” of the plenary session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, told the deputies about the implementation of priority projects for the development of the Russian energy sector, and also summed up the results of the industry’s work for two years.

Thus, according to the Minister, in 2022, oil production continued to grow, electricity consumption continued to grow, and coal production remained stable.

Speaking about the oil industry, Nikolai Shulginov noted that stimulation of production remains one of the priorities.

“Over the past two years, large oil fields have been put into operation, including the Severo-Danilovskoye oil field in the Irkutsk region, the Tazovskoye oil field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, and the development of continental shelf fields has also continued. Other priority projects are also being implemented, which will allow not only maintaining the current level of production, but also increasing it,” he said.

At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Energy stressed that the future of the oil industry is largely associated with the development of hard-to-recover reserves.

According to him, the priority of the Ministry of Energy is to maintain a stable supply of motor fuel to the domestic market. In particular, for this, previously concluded investment agreements on the modernization of oil refineries (refineries) are being actively implemented.

“Total investments in oil refining projects may exceed 1 trillion rubles. They will make it possible to build and reconstruct 50 processing units for the secondary processing of oil and auxiliary units, which will increase the yield of light oil products by 6%,” said Nikolay Shulginov.

Speaking about the achievements of the gas industry, the head of the Ministry of Energy recalled that at the end of 2022, the Kovykta gas field was put into operation. Due to this, the Power of Siberia gas pipeline has now been put into operation along its entire length, which not only allows exporting gas to China, but also provides gas to the eastern regions of the country for decades ahead.

Continuing the topic of gas exports, Nikolai Shulginov noted that a number of major projects in the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have already been implemented in the country, including large-capacity Yamal LNG and Sakhalin-2. A number of other major LNG projects are expected to be launched, including the Ust-Luga complex, Arctic LNG 2, and Obsky LNG.

He also drew attention to the fact that the gasification program remains one of the main directions for the internal development of the gas market. So, in 2022, on behalf of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, social gasification became indefinite. Almost 1 million 200 thousand applications for secondary gasification have already been submitted, gas has been brought to the borders of more than 500 thousand land plots, and the overall level of gas supply to the country in January 2023 reached 73%.

Nikolai Shulginov added that the regions are working to subsidize gas equipment installations for certain categories of citizens, such as combatants, family members of the victims, families with many children, as well as poor citizens. An additional 2.4 billion rubles have been allocated to subsidized regions for these purposes.

Separately, he dwelled on the performance of the coal industry. Thus, the reorientation of exports to friendly countries, especially to the Asia-Pacific markets, continues successfully.

“The increase in the production capacities of coal companies, investments in the coal industry, tax revenues, as well as the implementation of industry projects is actively continuing,” the head of the Ministry of Energy said.

In particular, in the Kemerovo region in 2022, five new mining longwalls with reserves of more than 2 million tons each were operated, and by 2025, it is planned to launch 8 new concentrating plants.

“For the development of modern coal projects, it is necessary to improve our legislation, including in the field of industrial safety and ecology,” the minister said.

Continuing the theme of the green agenda, Nikolai Shulginov noted that in 2022 more than 0.4 GW of new renewable energy sources (RES) capacities were put into operation, due to which the total capacity of such generation in Russia exceeded 5.7 GW.

In the field of electric power industry, the task of integrating the energy system of the East into the UPS of the country remains relevant.

“In 2022, the implementation of this large-scale project began. It will increase the capacity between power systems and improve the reliability of power supply to consumers, primarily BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway,” the head of the RF Ministry of Energy added.

According to him, in the field of hydropower, the Ministry identified 8 priority most developed projects of hydroelectric power plants in the regions of Siberia and the Far East with a total capacity of 4.7 GW.

Nikolai Shulginov also said that the Ministry of Energy is actively solving the issue of consolidating territorial grid organizations (TGOs), 40% of which do not meet the requirements for reliable operation. So, in 2022, there were 1,700 TSOs, in 2023 their number was reduced to 1,300, and by 2025, according to plans, there will be no more than 400 of them.

Speaking about the international agenda in the energy sector, the Minister noted that work is underway to form a single market for energy resources through the EAEU and the Union State - a regulatory and legal framework for the common electricity market of the EAEU is being created, international agreements are being negotiated to form a common market for gas, oil and oil products.