Letter from Moscow: Russia reluctantly explores hydrogen

If the EU, its major customer, is looking at displacing natural gas with H₂, the resource-rich producer must also try to get in on the act

Russia’s oil and gas industry was among the observers that expected, or at least hoped, that Europe would respond to the Covid-19 pandemic by putting its decarbonisation plans on hold to focus on near-term economic recovery. Instead, the continent’s energy transition ambitions have only picked up pace. Governments and businesses alike are doubling down on commitments to the Paris Agreement. To gauge the threat this poses to oil and the transition’s long-term impact on prices, one need only look at the billions of dollars that the world’s largest producers have written off on their balance sheets. Russia’s own Paris goals are so modest that it has already almost met them. This is because its