Putin: don't bury oil just yet

There are no real grounds so far to say that the hydrocarbons era is close to its end, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul.

"Many people start saying in conditions of the oil prices drop by almost twofold that the hydrocarbons era is approaching its end and time has already come to completely change the focus to alternative energy sources. I believe no real grounds are in place so far to make such far-reaching conclusions, at least for the time being," TASS cited Putin as saying.

"The mankind is moving to the "green energy" and this is definitely the main development path, the proper path," the Russian President said. "The demand for renewable energy is growing at a priority rate as compared to energy from conventional sources. Rollout of the state-of-the-art technologies, including such as distributed generation, high-capacity energy storages and the so-called "smart grids" promote acceleration of this process," Putin said.

Consumption of oil and gas will continue growing in parallel, "though not at such high rates as earlier," Putin said. "The demand for energy resources is supported not merely by motorization and energy connectivity in such large countries and economies as China, India and certain other states, but also by continuing penetration of petroleum and gas chemistry products into the most diverse spheres of human life and industrial processes," he added.

Putin also said that Russia is ready to join the decision on freeze or reduction of crude production, which is important for keeping stability on the oil market.

"In the current situation we consider the freeze or even reduction of crude production to be probably the only correct decision to keep the sustainability of the whole global energy market," Putin said.