Russian Energy Week

[M001-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:32 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

First of all, I would like to thank our host Mr. Alexander Novak and his team and the entire country. The Russian people are very welcoming people and very grateful to be invited and very grateful to be a member of this esteemed panel.

[M001-03] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:57 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The first 72 hours were mainly a bit of a drill for me, just to make sure that I am still up to the job, but I wouldn't have been up to the job if it was for the support I got from the rest of the government, his Majesty the King, Prince Mohammed, rest of my colleagues in the government agencies, Aramco as a company and others who are associated with Aramco such as electricity company, desalination plants, industry and the entire nation.

[M001-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:41 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We all rise to the challenge I am quite comfortable and quiet honored to believe that I could stand here with a straight face and ask any of my colleagues, those who are present here or those who are hearing me around the world, Where in the world would you have a country, a people and a nation can overcome that challenge which has never been seen anywhere in the world? When you lose more than a half of your production capacity, when you lose 5% of the world oil supply and more important when the attempt is to make you lose your reputation as a reliable, secure and dependable oil supplier.

[M001-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:38 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Within the 72 hours, our first reaction was to regain our capabilities and retain our reputation and we assume our responsibilities to attend our major job, which specifically to continue to be the most reliable, secure and dependable oil supplier, and with a straight face we address anybody and say " If you believe in us that's fine, if you don't believe in us you are more than welcome to come and visit us; we have hosted a number of journalists who visited us including Bloomberg, and we were in the face of inviting analysts to come and look at our numbers with regard to Aramco, we also enabled them to visit anywhere in Aramco, as a number of dignitaries from many countries came over too.

[M001-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:50 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Our ambassador here told me that the first day of starting our new touristic visas, 400 Russian applied for it to come and visit. We even have a quick visa for you guys, it will take you only from 5 to 10 minutes and you can get your visa and come over. We are driven by great sense of pride, we do not mind showing our accomplishments and how we (as a nation) can bite the bullet and move on, but I want to move on because we, in the energy industry in Saudi Arabia, have got few challenges. We have an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and want to make sure that it is the most successful IPO, we are working on our energy mix, we are really working hard on renewables and nuclear and efficiency, we are doing a lot of work on price reforms and we are attending to the entire ecosystem of energy. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, the people who are working with me, are intelligent and dedicated, we moved on, we flipped the page, and we are rising up to the new challenges.

[M001-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:55 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, in the beginning, it was stock withdrawal, as you have heard me in that press conference in Jeddah. Now it has been stabilized as a production, but also, I think you have heard some statements from me and from Mr. Amin the CEO of Aramco, that we went even beyond 9 million barrels of stabilized production capacity; we are at 11.3 million and, as we have said before, by the end of November, we will be back up and running. However, I do not want people in the market to confuse with our desire or willingness to produce that. 11.3 million, we have still committed to discharge. In fact, we have an additional commitment; we by our agreement with OPEC PLUS, we should have been producing 10.3 million, but we elected to voluntary cut our production to a lower level than that.

[M001-09] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:07 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I commend my colleague and my friend, Mr. Novak, for demonstrating that we still have the kit and the tool to overcome any future challenges that will disrupt what we are doing with the OPEC PLUS. The problem is that there are some concerns about some recessionary forces that may are seen somewhat. However, there are a gloomy picture has been drawn, where people are adding more fire to this sense of skepticism about the future. There are things that are real and things that are perceived and we are driven by, what I call it, negative expectation, and the only way to overcome these negative expectations is hopefully a quick resolution to this trade issue.

[M001-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:08:15 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I believe that there are sensible people that are attending to it. I know that they are more knowledgeable than about this issue; if it is not properly well handled, it will cause economic havoc to their own economies. So, I am willing to bet on the sensibility of those people, that at the final analysis something will be done to attend to this issue. On the demand side; yes, it is been lower, but people need to understand that also supply may become lower. A general pattern that has been discussed about Shale oil and others, so I am comfortable to say that people would need to revisit their numbers about the future trajectory of supply. Keeping things in perspective that 30 to 40% of access to capacity building is mainly to recover what people are doing in terms of sustaining their own capacity. To do that, it will be an expensive job at lower prices. What I am certain about is the preparedness of OPEC PLUS and we shall do everything to overcome this challenging question.

[M001-12] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:07 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

As a matter of Personal philosophy, I do not worry, I think and handling issues rather than sitting in a gloomy type of atmosphere and pause without thinking. My job is to think and find remedies, in addition to ensure that we have enough capable partners to come to attend to these issues as they prepared. I was glad that so many of our friends and colleagues here did mention that we do swing in the upside and downside. So, that shows a great deal of attentiveness to the situation. Let us not forget that we have attended to issues when we have shortages of supplies as opposed to times when we have very big supplies.

[M001-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:11:13 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

As Dan was saying, there are two or three resolvable factors that is that is Brexit issue, it needs some serious people to attend to it, trade issues, and it needs serious people to attend to it. There are things that will even improve as a result of this; He was talking about a 1% drop in trade. It was caused by tariffs and if these issues are remedied, trade numbers will improve. then they will have the propelling effect, or we go in a kind of cascading scenario or we could get that cascade flip, and then the watershed will be on the reverse. That is why I am hopeful that there are recoverable things; it is human made and can be solved by a human too, if they see into the risks that they are exposing themselves to, they are far beyond not to be attended.

[M001-15] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:46 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

No, I just showed the same cartoon bit differently. I think it all depends on who is the sender. I saw it with a coal fired generator, so it depends on who, is marketing what you see with diesel little generator, but the popular one, I think, was with coal fired generator. So, I think the message is: let us get rid of coal and focus on clean oil and clean diesel. Actually, in Saudi Arabia, we are working with all; we feel that is important to focus on clean energy, whatever the source. I think the whole world would require to be sensible, as the whole world would need every source of energy.

[M001-16] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:13:39 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The issue that matter the most is how clean these products are when consumed and what impact they would make. I think the whole world can congregate around that cause whereby to be sensible. We cannot ask China or US to get rid of coal, funny enough, Germany is using coal now. So, we have to use coal, we have to use oil, we have to use gas, we certainly have to use nuclear such as here in Russia and definitely we have to use the solar energy in Saudi Arabia and the wind in Scotland. The variety is an endowment and blessing, and that endowment should be put in good use.

[M001-17] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:14:35 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

1. In terms of making sure that the way we use them is not create any impact to the environment. 2. We must also use it efficiently, because wasting energy is something that should be condemned. We are so proud in Saudi Arabia, as we have launched nine years ago and I had the honor of leading a group of young Saudis, who have done miracles when it comes to efficiency in Saudi Arabia. We are moving along to change our energy mix in in the power sector, where we will be using 70% gas and 30% renewables. We are working on cleaner gas, diesel and gasoline. We have quite a few programs in terms of attending to the issue of mitigation, such as carbon sequestration and being involved in the ethane mission, we have a record in terms of ethane emission. We stand tall as Saudis and Saudi Arabia and having really diligently.

[M001-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:15:55 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

In addition, we make sure that emissions are controllable, and we have been a member of the Paris Agreement ever since day one. We have been engaged for the last 27 years, actually almost 30 years, on climate change negotiation and the Saudi Ministry of Energy is leading this. We have an institutional memory far beyond any country may have on this issue. Again, I would like to stress that Saudi Arabia is quite engaged in fulfilling its commitment that has transpired out of the Paris agreement, we will rise to the challenge, we will discharge our commitments, and not only that, I think we will be able one day to come through with solutions that would help in mitigating all of this concern. However, let us not focus on the source, but focus more on how we make our consumption of all energy clean and efficient. Thank you.

[M001-19] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:13 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I would like to talk. So, as an economist, I cannot respond with a number because I will tell you, demand will depend on the health of the world economy, resolution of political issues, trade issues and so on. However, they all just have to hedge and make sure that every economist does not make a mistake. If you allow me to answer this question in a number order, because people are focusing on demand and they are not focusing on supply. They are taking supply of future supplies are for granted and I am really worried about this prognosis, because I believe that supplies being projected in the next year may not happen, and Dan was just mentioning a while ago concern about some supply sources that may not materialize.

[M001-20] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:18:17 · Russian Energy Week · 2019-10-02 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I would still also look at what would be the price prevailing at that time, because that will also have effect both what will happen to supply and eventually what will happen to demand in a comprehensive way. But as an optimist and I need to be an optimist to carry on, we have the tools that enabled us with OPEC PLUS to be attentive to these issues. Thank you.