Gazprom CEO sees international energy prices growing soon

ST. PETERSBURG, Oct 4 (PRIME) – International energy prices will start to grow very soon, Russian gas giant Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Tuesday at an International Gas Forum.

“The current level of international prices does not allow the world’s economy to solve tasks that may be solved only with the help of gas. And this means that we will definitely see a growing trend in energy prices in the world in the nearest future,” he said.

Otherwise, the economy will not be able to tackle the challenges, including growing population, environmental protection and energy imports by all developed economies.

The oil and gas industry has seen the lowest increases of reserves and discoveries of new fields in 2016.

“In the last three years (2014–2016) investment in development and construction of facilities at fields in the world energy sector fell by 25%. And as a result, we see that the forecast has already come true before the end of the year, and 2016 has become the year with the lower rate of new field discoveries in the world. This mean a low increase of reserves as well,” he said.

But the world’s consumption of gas will increase by 30% from the current figure of about 3.5 trillion cubic meters per year in 15 years. The world will see consistent growth of international trade in gas in the foreseeable future, he said.

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