The president of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, questioned this Friday during the company’s shareholders’ meeting the ban on Europe of fracking while Russian natural gas is being replaced by that from the United States (USA), which is very abundant in the country thanks to this extraction technique, which is highly protested by the main groups in defense of the environment.
“It saddens me to see the nonsense of European policies, for example, in banning fracking in Europe to produce gas through hydraulic fracturing, and now that some are running out of Russian gas, we decided import gas produced with fracking from the United States. Where is the consistency? What good are we doing to the planet? “, Brufau asked himself in his speech, according to Europa Press.
Along these lines, he has reflected on why the use of this technique is not facilitated on the continent when it could be available “a gas without having to buy it from third parties“. “I don’t know for what reasons we don’t want to get into this mechanic,” he added. In factUSA is the main exporter of natural gas to Spain, with 43.3% of the total consumption of this raw material, according to data from the latest Enagás Statistical Bulletin, published at the beginning of last April.
On the other hand, the Chairman of Repsol has reflected on whether it makes sense to reduce the debate on the geopolitics of critical minerals for the energy transition, “obvious” that energy from hydrocarbons will continue to be needed and “ignore” that there will be industries and European sectors whose decarbonization it will be difficult achieve with renewable electricity.
“If anyone has believed that oil and gas will not play a relevant role in the (energy) mix of the future, they are wrong,” he added. Along these lines, Brufau praised the fact that Europe wants to lead the fight against climate change, although he has warned of the cost of assuming it alone. “On the issue of energy transition and climate change, Europe pretends to be the world’s tractor, but unfortunately it is not the world’s tractor,” she asserted.
Thus, he stressed that there are countries that are “much more relevant”, such as China and the United States. “The planet has other priorities. China has already announced that its 2050 (decarbonisation) target is extended by 10 years. And nobody can guarantee that China, in four days, will say that it is extending it another 10 years. India is exactly the same and the United States depends on the Administration (…) and Biden has his twists and turns depending on geopolitics”. Brufau has delved into the fact that Europe should not believe itself “the leader of the energy transition” and put ” rules and limitations” to the issuing companies, but rather their goal should be to “lead technology” to help the planet evolve, as a whole, in the same direction.
In addition, he has underlined that in the Old Continent there is a certain bias towards electric mobility as the only solution for the energy transition and has defended that renewable liquid fuels, from organic waste and biomass, among others, are necessary to accelerate electrification with hybrid vehicles. He has also opted for remove obstacles to the use of sustainable raw materials to produce advanced biofuels from organic waste. In his opinion, opting for this line of action would lead to job creation in the automobile and component industries.
The energy transition costs 275 billion dollars
After condemning Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, Repsol’s chairman stressed that in this context the “urgency” of ensuring Europe’s energy autonomy and also with regard to critical materials and components has been manifested. However, he has urged not to forget that economic competitiveness and social welfare require a balance between security of supply, affordable prices and sustainability.
In his opinion, it is time to design routes to minimize greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, at an affordable cost, “without dogmas”, with “pragmatism” and “without the intellectual arrogance” of trying to establish, a priori, how to achieve the objectives in the future. On this, he has emphasized that the energy transition carries costsaccording to unreferenced analysts, some $275 trillion through 2050.