London, SPA:
Eng. Amin Hassan Al-Nasser, Saudi Aramco President and CEO, affirmed that the energy sector faces greater reputational challenges than any other to correct a worrying and growing belief among policy makers and regulators, investment houses, NGOs, and many others that we are an industry with little or no future.
This came in a speech delivered by Eng. Al-Nasser during his participation in the International Petroleum Week being held in London.
He said that some financial experts in Davos last month confidently predicted the end of our industry in about five to ten years and most vehicles on the road would be electric in 10 years when today the electric vehicles account for less than half a percent.
The Armco CEO said that many major investors believe that the world will accelerate in an unreasonable time framework to use renewable sources of energy, adding that the claim that the world would do without oil and gas is extremely erroneous and has no facts to support it.
He explained that, even if all vehicles are to be converted into electric, the passenger vehicles are only 20% of the world’s oil demand while the remaining 80% is used by sectors like planes, ships, trucks, petrochemicals, and lubes for which there is no alternative yet and where demand for oil is expected to increase substantially.
He highlighted that solar and wind energies still account for just 2% of primary energy demand today, affirming that the oil companies are abled in the recent years to improve their efficiency, safety record, environmental performance and ability to contribute positively to climate change by reducing emissions, citing Saudi Aramco's achievement as a global pioneering example.
Al-Nasser called upon his energy counterparts to correct misconceptions about those who doubt the continuation and sustainability of the oil and gas industry.
He concluded that the energy industry could greatly highlight the carbon footprints of its products.