Oxford Energy Podcast – Russia’s oil conundrum and its approach to Energy Transition – could it be its ‘Kodak Moment’

In this podcast David Ledesma talks to Indra Overland, Head of the Centre for Energy Research at NUPI and Vitaly Yermakov, Senior Research Fellow, OIES about their chapters in the recently published Oxford Energy Forum “The Geopolitics of Energy: Out with the old, in with the new?”.

Indra argues that the impact of the global energy transition on Russia could have great consequences for the rest of the world.  While there is some awareness of the vulnerability of Russian oil and gas exports to global energy transition, there is little discussion of the fact that Russia is a major coal producer, consumer and exporter, with around 650,000 Russians working in coal-related jobs. The impact of the energy transition on the Russian economy could be large. In the podcast Indra says that China and the United States are better positioned than Russia for the global energy transition, but if it seizes the day, Russia may have advantages when it comes to exports of blue hydrogen, embedded renewable energy and critical materials for clean energy technologies.

Vitaly examines the dynamics between the world’s largest global oil producers and exporters – Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the US – arguing that each producer has its own set of strengths and weaknesses and that these will shape the future of global oil markets.  Responding to the challenge of US shale, Russia and Saudi Arabia have joined forces within OPEC+. Increased pressures from the energy transition could see a Russia-Saudi alliance evolve and bring about new forms of cooperation.

By: OIES

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