‘I think that oil and gas will remain important for a long time’, says the director of the Russian Agency for Mineral Resources (Rosnedra), Evgueni Kiseliov.

The Russian scientist assured ‘there will be no way to replace them for 30 or 40 years’,

Renewable energies will hardly replace hydrocarbons and if the battle against their use is won, silicon will be the main candidate to replace them. Kiseliov pointed out that ‘sedimentary rocks, very rich in silicon, abound in the plains of Russia’.

The director -quoted by the Sputniknews site- thinks that a possible alternative to oil and gas are rare metals that can be used for the development of energy storage systems.

‘For example, the demand for lithium, which is used in batteries, is increasing, and in Russia we have it in large quantities, although production is low,’ Kiseliov said.

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