Vasily Bogoyavlensky: "Oil will always be in demand"

"When oil prices are dropping, many people start saying that the era of hydrocarbons is approaching its end and time has already come to completely refocus to alternative energy sources," the Russian President Vladimir Putin said today, speaking at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul. According to him, consumption of oil and gas will continue growing, though not at such high rates as earlier: "The demand for energy resources is supported not merely by motorization and electrification in such large countries and economies as China, India and others, but also by continuing penetration of petroleum and gas chemistry products into the most diverse spheres of human life and industrial processes". Vestnik Kavkaza asked the Deputy Director of the Institute for Problems of Oil and Gas of the RAS, corresponding member of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vasily Bogoyavlensky, about the prospects of oil production.

- Vasily Igorevich, what do you think about the prospects of oil production in the Caucasus?

- The Pre-Caucasian region is one of the oldest regions of oil and gas production. Very old oil fields are located on the territory of the Chechen Republic and Dagestan. They have drilled oil wells and produced hydrocarbons in Kuban as early as the 19th century. Although it must be said that in many republics oil and gas production has dropped in comparison to previous years due to the depletion of the known wells. At the same time, a whole layer has not been yet researched completely. I mean shale oil of the Khadum Formation where new fields have already been found. The idea is to modernize the technology in order to ensure a profitable development of these deposits. I believe that the Pre-Caucasian region will obtain the second life in terms of oil and gas, and the entire infrastructure, which was built in the Soviet times, can be utilized.

- What can you say about reports of large oil fields discovered in Alaska?

- It is true. Two wells were drilled in the coastal zone. Americans are pragmatic, they will not drill for oil far from the coast, especially in the North Pole. But this one are quite close to the shore, where the production has been underway at a number of fields since 1987. Now we are talking about a very oil-reach deposit discovered. The companies will think of how to organize production, additional exploration at first and then production. They are to be congratulated, this is a success. For us, this is not surprising, because we analyze the geological environment in all regions of the world ocean, and the Arctic as well. We see great prospects for the North Slope of Alaska. This finding confirms what we have spoken and written about for a long time.

- Do you think that oil will be in global demand for a long time?

- Oil will always be in demand. It is important to use it not only as a fuel or, as Mendeleev said, to burn paper money, but in the petrochemical industry in general; and gas, respectively, in the gas chemistry. Today, many things around us are made from oil to a large extent.