The chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, has said that energy industry deserve an orderly transition to renewables rather than follow the current plan in place, which he said is flawed.
Addressing participants during the opening day of the Energy Intelligence Forum in London, Nasser said if fossil fuels were phased out before enough forms of green energy were available, it would result in a gap opening up.
According to him, Aramco is the largest provider of crude oil to global markets, and is committed to working with other companies to meet its net zero by 2050 goals, but called for a degree of realism.
“Alternatives are not ready yet to shoulder a bigger portion of the energy required. Until they are ready, we need to work it out, we need to [look to] oil and gas,” he said, while noting the need to invest further in technology such as carbon capture and hydrogen.
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“We are for climate protection but … we need to make sure we don’t end up with shortages of supply.”
The Aramco boss pointed out that forms of green energy must be cheaper and easily available if they are going to replace fossil fuels on markets.
“Affordability and availability is a must, so we need to invest to ensure gas, crude, decarbonised [energy] is available. And when renewable [energy] is ready, you can phase out crude, gas. But make sure that it is ready first. This is where we have a flawed transition plan,” he said
Mr. Nasser also said global oil stocks were “extremely low”. He said his company was “progressing very well” towards its net zero by 2050 goals and called for greater co-operation in the industry to find green alternatives to energy.
“We are for climate protection and we are committed to be part of the solution in energy investments,” he said. “We need to work together and we need to believe in an orderly transition.”
He also touched on the challenges facing Europe’s high demand for energy and upheaval in markets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Demand for oil and gas picked up “big time” after the Covid-19 pandemic, he said, driving the prices of energy up before the situation was intensified due to the war.
“The issue for Europe is gas and energy because there is no spare capacity available,” he said. “These are all on long-term contracts. As you drop supply coming from Russia, no one does really step up and meet the additional demand. So, it is going to be a major issue in Europe when it comes to gas and energy.”
Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest oil producer. Officially known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company, the company is primarily state-owned and is based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
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