Russian Energy 30% Cheaper than Washington’s ‘Freedom Gas’: Rosneft CEO

One of Russia’s top oil executives, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, said on Thursday that “Russian and U.S. energy molecules are identical but Russian energy is 30% cheaper,” Reuters reported.

His statement came in response to the Trump administration rebranding fossil fuels as “molecules of U.S. freedom” and specifically gas as “freedom gas”.

Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Sechin said the company’s joint project in Siberia with BP had showed a “phenomenal” oil output yield recently.

The CEO of Russia’s biggest oil company also accused Washington of using energy as a political weapon and said that the U.S. golden age of energy had become an “era of energy colonialism” for other countries.

Sechin said a third of global oil reserves were currently restricted by U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela and that Washington was losing moral ground as a self-styled leader of open markets.

“A number of commentators like to accuse Russia of using energy as a political tool,” Sechin said.

“But indisputably the reality today is that the United States uses energy as a political weapon on a mass scale. Sanctions, or even the threat of their imposition, has a destructive effect on the global energy market ecosystem,” he added.