Sechin says global energy consumption growth is coming

Global energy consumption will grow as demand from data processing centers (DPCs) increases, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said at the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) on December 5.

He noted that investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that global electricity consumption by data centers could grow 2.5 times by 2030 and exceed 1,000 terawatt-hours, which would be equal to almost half of the consumption of European countries.

"In order to raise the standard of living of the population of developing countries to at least half the level of the "golden billion", it is necessary to increase oil production almost twice," he said.

Bank of America forecasts that economic growth in developing countries and the development of centers will lead to an annual increase in energy consumption of up to 9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day at the current global consumption of 300 million. At the same time, in 2025, the production of electricity from renewable sources can increase by only 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. This suggests that gas and oil will continue to be essential to global energy security.

"Oil accounts for more than 30% of global energy consumption, coal 25%, gas 22%, and it appears that we are still far from peak demand for fossil fuels," Sechin added.

In addition, J.P. Morgan predicts that by 2035 global oil demand will grow by almost 6 million barrels per day due to increased consumption in India and developing countries. At the same time, Sechin said that the industry as a whole expects a stable growth in oil consumption - it may reach up to 20 million barrels per day by 2050.

Earlier, on August 20, Sergei Tereshkin, general director of the Open Oil Market, suggested that oil exports from Russia will increase by more than 10% by the end of the year.

Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia on August 23 that China and India will remain the largest buyers of Russian oil for many decades to come.

Prior to that, on August 7, the RF Ministry of Finance reported that oil and gas revenues of the Russian federal budget for January-July 2024 amounted to about 6.8 trillion rubles. The indicator exceeded the level of the same period of the previous year by 61.6%. The increase in revenues is explained by the growth of prices for Russian oil.