Concerns related to both the transformation of power and the security of power have been thrown into the abyss of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas, and in the past few weeks many economic powers have put in place plans to reduce their dependence on their hydrocarbons.
On Friday, the US and the European Commission issued a statement on energy security announcing the formation of a joint task force on the issue.
Groups say the US will “strive to ensure” at least 15 billion cubic meters of EU natural gas liquid this year. They added that this is expected to grow in the future.
Commenting on the agreement, President Joe Biden said the US and the EU would also “work together to take concrete steps to reduce natural gas dependence – time – and increase … the availability and use of renewable energy.”
All of the above speaks of the great task facing governments around the world who say they want to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, prevent the worst effects of climate change and at the same time protect energy security.
The challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector were discussed on Monday during the Global Energy Forum discussions of the Atlantic Council in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
During the panel, chaired by CNBC Hadley Gamble, CEO of Italian oil and gas firm Eni wanted to highlight the current tensions facing his industry.
Claudio Descalzi said that, historically, many different resources have been used. “We are well aware that in the last 200 years, all the vectors of different forces [have] … been added,” he said. “So coal, and oil, and gas and other renewable resources.”
“We have never found the source, or source, of the power, to replace everything. It is crazy to think that something could change everything. ”
Others who spoke on Monday included Anna Shpitsberg, deputy secretary general of energy reform at the US Department of State.
Shpitsberg said that while the US-EU team will focus on areas such as protecting the provision of LNG, it will also look to provide “assurance to American producers who will be growing and expanding in Europe in the long run by 2030. “Permits and infrastructure will also be the focus,” he said.
It was also important that he did not compromise on the change of power, he admitted, before referring to the dispute filed by Eni’s Descalzi.
“The statement that we cannot rely on a single technology, just as we can rely on a single supply chain, is the reason why we are investing so much in hydrogen.”
Shpitsberg called hydrogen “a game-changing technology that communicates with a variety of other sources. . . and storage]. ”
“So for me, it ensures that the market has enough signals, knowing that the regulatory environment will support current energy security signals,” he said.
“But we are sending, again, all the resources that we can deal with in this change. That is why we are investing billions of dollars in hydrogen R&D. ”
‘Various Energy Company Company’
Described by the International Energy Agency as a “multi-functional carrier,” hydrogen has a wide range of applications and can be distributed in sectors such as industry and transportation.
It can be produced in many ways. One method involves the use of electrolysis, with the electric current that separates oxygen and hydrogen.
When the electricity used in this process comes from a renewable source such as air or the sun some people call it green or renewable hydrogen.
Although there is interest in some areas of hydrogen energy, much of its generation is currently based on fossil fuels.
Other speakers on Monday included Crescent Petroleum chief executive Majid Jafar.
Once again, Jafar blamed the importance of gas for years to come, calling it a “significant renewable resource” because it supports their supply from time to time. And, he said, “the path to future technologies like hydrogen.”
Monday’s panel booked a month in which the International Energy Agency reported that by 2021 it had seen energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise to the highest level in history. IEA has found global CO2 emissions related to energy increased by 6% by 2021 to reach a record high of 36.3 billion metric tons.
In its analysis, the world’s leading energy authority cited the use of coal as a major cause of growth. It said coal accounted for more than 40 percent of global CO2 production last year, reaching a record 15.3 billion metric tons.
“CO2 emissions from natural gas have also risen above their 2019 levels to 7.5 billion tons,” the IEA said, adding that CO2 oil emissions entered 10.7 billion metric tons.