The Secretary-General of OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais has said that all energy sources, including oil and gas, must participate in the energy transition to help reduce emissions, and the hydrocarbons sector needs to continue investing to ensure energy security.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution,” Haitham al-Ghais told the India Energy Week taking place in Bengaluru. “The focus needs to be on emissions reduction, not a choice between fuels.”
Alongside energy transition, Ghais said that the oil and gas industry needs to continue investing to ensure energy security and that chronic underinvestment needs to be rectified.
“It is not something we can leave till tomorrow. It is about today.”There is a need to ensure that all voices are heard, all relevant technologies employed, and all energy sources utilized”.
His comments were echoed by Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and president of the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference which is taking place in Dubai in 2023.
Jaber, who is also the minister for industry and advanced technology, is the first CEO of a company to hold a COP presidency, an appointment that ruffled the feathers of some non-governmental organizations.
“The energy transition will require every segment of society working together in an inclusive effort, and that surely means including the efforts of the energy industry,” Jaber was quoted as saying. “In my view, it is not a conflict of interest. It is in fact our common interest to have the energy industry working alongside everyone on the solutions that the world desperately needs.”
Officials from the UAE, which is OPEC’s third-biggest producer, have emphasised that there is the need to continue investing in the oil and gas industry, while at the same time reducing their emissions. Officials from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are ramping up their oil production capacities by 2027, have often cited their low carbon-intensive oil production as an indication they are likely to supply the world’s last oil barrels.
The world will consume 30% more energy by 2050, Jaber said.
“The world still needs hydrocarbons, and they need them to bridge the current energy system to the new energy system,” Jaber said. “We cannot under any circumstances think that we can unplug the current energy system before we actually build the new energy system. As such, we must minimize the carbon footprint and only invest in the least carbon-intensive barrels and continue to reduce their intensity.”
Story was adapted from S&P Global.
