OREANDA-NEWS. June 22, 2012. Vladimir Putin met with heads of major international and Russian energy companies within the framework of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for finding the time to come here today. It is a pleasure to see here the heads of leading energy companies from Russia and around the world. I hope that we will have a good and candid exchange of views on the current situation.

I want to note in particular that we are joined at today’s meeting by the winners of the 2012 Global Energy Award. One of this year’s laureates is Boris Katorgin, a leading designer of new-generation rocket engines that have been recognised as the best in the world. Just to give one example, these Russian engines have been powering US astronauts’ flights in space over these last few years.

The award was also given to academician Valery Kostyuk, and to UK professor Rodney John Allam, who won the Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Specialists describe these laureates’ innovative work on cryogenic systems as representing the technology of the future.

We realise just how important these kinds of truly revolutionary solutions are. They can lead us to real breakthroughs in ensuring energy security for all humanity, improving the lives of millions of people, opening up new opportunities for space exploration, and for carrying out big new programmes and projects. I congratulate the laureates on their well-earned awards and from all my heart wish them new achievements and discoveries.

Let me stress that Russia will continue to support fundamental studies and applied research. We see this as a key condition for global leadership in the energy sector and for developing and thoroughly modernising Russia’s energy industry. This industry must be not just a source of resources but a source too, of modern jobs, and create strong demand for new technology, innovative solutions, and smart investment.

It is enough to say that Russia’s power plant engineering companies plan to place orders worth around 3 trillion rubles over the coming period. This is a solid investment resource. These orders will be placed with Russian businesses and companies. As you know, we also buy considerable amounts of power plant equipment from our foreign partners.

We will substantially expand the energy sector’s resource base over the coming years, with offshore development of new oil and gas fields, including in eastern Siberia, Yamal, and Sakhalin. We are developing infrastructure and building a series of new energy transport routes, including routes that will supply the Asia-Pacific region countries. I think you are familiar with our supply route development projects given that many of you are taking part in them. They include Baltic Pipeline System-2, the new port in Ust-Luga (not far from here, just to the northwest of St Petersburg), the new oil supply route to the Pacific coast, and the gas supply routes, Nord Stream crossing the Baltic Sea, and South Stream in the Black Sea.

In this respect, we thank our Turkish partners for the Turkish government’s recent decision to give us the final go-ahead for working in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. We will continue, too, our work to develop big fields such as Vankor, Talakan, and Shtokman in the Barents Sea.

Russia has brought on line more than 12 gigawatts in new electricity generating capacity over the last four years. This is the biggest increase over the last few decades here. Most important is that we are not going to stop here but will continue to expand capacity over the coming years. I am sure that we will reach our targets.