• He reiterated Saudi Arabia’s commitment to energy security, aiming to ensure sustainable energy markets

Russell Searancke, Upstream

CALGARY
Energiesnet.com 09 20 2023

Saudi Arabia is committed to the idea of the energy transition, not just domestically but also in supporting other nations on their journey, according to the country’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who said the kingdom will continue to champion the importance of energy security.

“We’re going to make sure that people understand Saudi Arabia is no longer going to be just a hydrocarbon producer. Saudi Arabia is converting to become an energy producer, taking into account that we are the lowest-cost producer,” Prince Abdulaziz said at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary.

“We feel strongly that we are the cheapest producers of renewable energy. We could be the cheapest producers of green hydrogen. We want to sell hydrogen. We want to sell green electricity.”

Saudi Arabia’s ambition is to generate 50% of its electricity from renewables, and to possibly act as a bridge for bringing parties together for the trade of hydrogen and renewable electricity.

On the subject of hydrocarbon production, Prince Abdulaziz reiterated Saudi Arabia’s commitment to energy security, the main ambition of which is to have sustainable energy markets.

This commitment to energy security would continue to underline the company’s approach to its oil and gas production levels.

It is important that the “mistakes of the past” in determining production rates are not repeated, Prince Abdulaziz said.

“International energy markets need regulators and regulating, and it has to be a light-handed regulation,” he said.

He defended Opec+ cuts to oil market supply, and was critical of the International Energy Agency, saying the IEA had moved from being “a forecaster and assessor of the market to one practicing political advocacy”.

“Look at what the IEA said in October last year, including the head of the IEA. They have been doing interviews and statements and everything about the belligerent acts of Opec+,” he said. “If I was the IEA, I would probably be very ashamed of what they have said during that month. None of the things they were warning about has happened.”

The IEA said in October 2022 that “the relentless deterioration of the economy and higher prices sparked by an Opec+ plan to cut supply are slowing world oil demand”. It warned that the Opec+ decision to cut official production targets by 2 million barrels per day from November 2022 – a 1 million bpd cut to actual output, given the bloc’s underperformance of its quotas – could bring a marked deceleration in oil supply.

upstramonlines.com 09 18 2023