Oil and gas companies face more and more significant challenges in a "green" Europe

Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Neft and Capital internet portal on the trends in the development of hydrocarbons exploration and production in Europe.

According to Alexey Belogoryev, the ESG agenda is the main reason for oil and gas majors to reduce their activities in the eurozone. In Europe, such companies are required to comply with it not only by investors or investment funds, but also by the entire banking system of the region, as well as other counterparties.

"The key point is to discourage investment in exploration and development of new deposits in the region. This is especially true for oil production in Europe. Governments are increasingly pushing oil and gas companies in the Old World to develop renewable energy projects. Of course, they also have their advantages, but they have lower margins than in the oil and gas production business.

The worst thing is that it is almost impossible to deal with all these problems in Europe. As a result, there is a large imbalance, in which it is much easier for oil and gas majors to work in the United States than in the European Union, which is losing competitiveness," Alexey Belogoryev says.

According to the expert, the tax policy of individual countries, as well as the UK, scares off oil and gas majors in the European Union. The situation with them is much better in developing countries, where, by the way, there are many more promising deposits that have not yet been depleted as in the EU.