Eurasia

The investment Greon Group in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia extended the participants’ geography of its environmental transparency rating with oil companies from Azerbaijan. For the first time analytics compared them to ones from Russia and Kazakhstan. The rating allows to assess investment attractiveness of oil companies, which becomes very important for industry’s post-corona crisis recovery.

Two corporations from Azerbaijan have been joined this year to the annual transparency rating of oil and gas companies run by Creon Group and WWF: State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC).

“The situation with coronavirus is alarming but should be temporary: oil and gas markets slump caused by global economic slowdown worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. However, I am sure the industry will overcome today’s challenges”, said Fares Kilzie, chairman of the board of Creon Group. “The rating importance will be even higher after the crisis as it defines transparency and ecological responsibility of oil companies. Here are key indicators for any investors in today’s business reality”, emphasized Kilzie.

Along with newcomers, two Azerbaijan oil companies, the Eurasian rating represents 20 major Russian oil and gas companies with production of crude oil and gas concentrate exceeding 1.5 mln ton per year and 14 Kazakhstani companies with production exceeding 0.5 mln ton per year.

Head of Environmental Policy Program at WWF Russia Alexey Knizhnikov added, “geographical expansion of rating has not only extends the number of participants from new countries, but more importantly, allows us to explore and analyze the level of impact on environment in line with industry average indicators for region. It is the first time when we got a chance to compare oil companies of Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan by multiple ecological criteria”.

The new criteria have been used to compare greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy for three countries. Russian and Kazakhstani companies’ emission rate is 73.29 and 76.12 kg per unit of energy respectively, whereas emissions data of Azerbaijani companies is higher. As commented Mr Knizhnikov, “We are certain that the data of greenhouse gas emissions will decline gradually as it decreased in other companies of our rating list”.

According to Mr Kilzie, ESG (Environment-Social-Governance) responsibility factors are becoming key criteria for investment decisions in energy sector. “We see it clearly in western markets as oil companies have to conduct internal audit for board of directors, banks and shareholders, and forced to being transparent and responsible to the broader society. In order to pass double exam and to achieve sustainable development, businesses need to be ranked in a credible ecological rating and keep moving toward transparency”, suggested Mr Kilzie.

DOWNLOAD the Rating brochure here (EN/RU)

Reference

An annual independent Rating of Environmental Responsibility of oil and gas companies have been facilitated in the frame of “Rational Approach” for Russia since 2014, Kazakhstan joined in 2017 and republic of Azerbaijan beginning in 2020. The rating helps to evaluate the ecological responsibility of oil companies with production exceeding 1.5mln ton per year. Joint project of Creon Group and WWF has been found in order to accomplish two goals: to reduce environment impact and encourage oil companies operating in Russia and CIS countries to integrate ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) related factors, and moving forward sustainable development goals.

Contacts

Alexey Knelz
Head of Corporate Communications CREON Group
alexey.knelz@creon-group.com
+7 (985) 773-31-93

Polina Shkividorova
Press secretary WWF Russia
+7 495 727 09 39
PShkividorova@wwf.ru

Former EU Commission President Romano Prodi is firmly committed to strengthening relations between the European and the Eurasian Union. As “political relations are currently stagnating”, Prodi said, the economic integration of those two regions must be improved even more. The EU politician, who also served as Prime Minister of Italy before and after his term as Commission Chief (1999-2004), is seeking to bring together the network of economic areas between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The “First Connecting Eurasia Dialogue” should be established as a platform to connect businesspeople from Europe and Eurasia. The event took place on 15 March in Brussels, Creon Capital supports this dialogue as a main sponsor. More than 200 guests from Eurasian and European Union countries accepted the invitation to the Cercle Royal Gaulois in Brussels.

Creon Capital Chairman Fares Kilzie emphasized: “The Eurasian Economic Union is not a political initiative, and this should be demonstrated on this event to decision-makers in Brussels.” Too often, the region was reduced to political conflicts between the EU and Russia. “This politicization is a mistake”, says Kilzie: “Eurasia is a big market for European companies and vice versa. Economic relations in both directions must be promoted by politicians instead of being disturbed.”

The participants and panelists from Eurasia outnumbered the number of EU representatives. Kilzie criticized this: “This is more of a monologue, as representatives from Eurasia are much stronger represented in Brussels.” Similarly argued Mark Gyetvay, vice-president of Russian LNG manufacturer Novatek: “We need to work together and move from business to business to business.”

Both the Fund’s initiator Creon Group and the managing company Creon Capital support several initiatives to strengthen trade between East and West. Only two weeks ago, the Luxembourg fund management company joined a German initiative promoting free trade between Vladivostok and Lisbon. Russia’s minister of economy Maksim Oreshkin attended the signing ceremony during a Russian-German conference on bilateral economic relations.

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Participants of a panel discussion on business in Eurasia (from the right): Pierroberto Folgiero(CEO Maire Tecnimont), Fares Kilzie (Chairman Creon Capital), Mark A. Gyetvay (Deputy Chairman of the Novatek Management Board), Sergey Ivanov (CEO Alrosa), Koen Berden(Executive Director for International Affairs, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), moderator Philippe Pégorier(President Alstom Russia, Member of the Board, Association of European Businesses).

WWF and CREON Group presented first Eurasian ecological rating of oil and gas companies

Romano Prodi is pushing for greater integration between the EU and Eurasia in Brussels