Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2)

[M065-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:04 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

It is a pleasure to be here, it is been ever since the end of February 2020, I was here for a quick visit, but ever since then, this is my first time to Moscow. However; I was in Saint Petersburg, I attended there, but unfortunately, I have not seen the city. So, I have been promised by my friend, Alexander, that he and I with our families hopefully would visit Saint Peterburg again, and see it properly.

[M065-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:49 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, I believe that the whole energy complex has being hijacked, by no person but bad planning. You could see that lots of mistakes have been there done with regard to what to do about the use of hydrocarbon and fossil fuels. There are those who believe the idea that they can live energizing their economy without hydrocarbon, and without fossil fuels, and the testament is what you see now: countries that have not built their stocks, countries of gas or coal, the wind is not working effectively as they should, and all of us rarely realize that they are exposed to a type of the energy shortages, and there are also creating this situation of being scaring people about if the winter becomes cold. "What would happen to energy supplies?".

[M065-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:08 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So, this pushed the price curves to the unprecedented levels, you know gas is five folds in Europe, coal is 300%, and as a result of that, even with our serious management as OPEC Plus, oil had increased by about 29% or so, but it is mainly because of the consequences of what is happening. I do not think that this situation could have existed had people were aware well "Did their job of planning things better in a better way?" This whole situation could have been mitigated, and we are hoping that things can calm down with regard to gas and coal because these are the root cause of the problem. Oil has nothing to do with it as you may have heard me today I was speaking that the OPEC Plus have been introducing production, and will continue producing more based on our agreement.

[M065-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:18 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Our agreement is solid, I think that it matches where demand is progressively going in the future, it is helping us all to see growth in our production. Yet, it is measured growth to make sure that we do not overdo it, and therefore, disturb the market or create even an additional volatility. I am not known as a person for having no lenience with the idea of volatility, I do not like volatility, I like sustainability and I like stability. I think OPEC Plus had proven that it can do that, it can achieve that, I wish there was something with regard to the gas that can deliver the world what Opec Plus had delivered.

[M065-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:22 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I normally do not talk about the prices as you know me.

[M065-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:29 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I talk about stability and balancing the market, I believe by the end of this year; the market would be balanced. I think we have a challenge next year on how much stock build we will have? But I believe that OPEC PLUS has the monthly meeting, and the will to do something to make sure that stability will be sustained. Everybody benefited from a stable oil map, everybody realize, and when I say and talk about everybody that not only the members of OPEC Plus, but actually all oil producers have benefited, the industry had benefited, everybody benefited.

[M065-11] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:15 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So, it would be important to continue doing what we have been doing, I think we gained a lot of leverage among ourselves, and we have seen a lot of benefits that we all collectively shared, and individually enjoyed that makes it more and more important that we continue this cooperation, and continue our monthly meetings, and ensure that we are ready to deal with this situation in the market as the market dictates at any juncture and at any time.

[M065-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:06:38 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, you know, our choice is that we do all of the above, we, as Saudi Arabia, are working hard to make our solution all of the above. We will use oil, we will use gas, we would use shale gas, we will use hydrogen, we will use both of the renewables both, even we will use nuclear. We believe that we, as Saudi Arabia, want to become not only an oil and gas country, but an energy company, and we have within our capacity to become even more competitive, especially with regard to solar and hydrogen.

[M065-14] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:22 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Because if you have a competitive in solar, you could become very competitive in green hydrogen, with regard to blue hydrogen, again we can be proven to be a competitive people. We also believe that you should not narrow your choices about what fuel of the future you would use. You should use all of them, and if you have a concern about emissions, you should work hard in creating technologies that can reduce or mitigate the emissions that make. I think, you know, in the event I attended I talked about the Energy security is very crucial and it is a public good so as also climate change, and attending to climate change because it is very important and very serious.

[M065-15] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:08:20 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I do not like the idea that it should be a zero-sum game thing that you either choose climate change attendance or you choose energy security, because choosing one of the two would not be helpful. I believe that there is a way that you can attend to both; that you could attend to the climate change, yet, you are also doing everything to ensure that your energy security, be it individually as a country or globally, can be attained to. I believe in technologies and we have come up with this an approach called the circular carbon economy; which is to use oil, gas, even coal, and yet, you make sure that you capture and sequester all of these CO2s, plus even all of these greenhouse gases should be dealt with, if we can work collectively and globally in finding this technology, in investing in these technologies which would help us to keep these options.

[M065-16] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:35 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

There are countries that chosen to narrow their choices by their own choice, and I believe now they are seeing some of the preload of their wrong choices, and I hope that what we have seen today, and what we are seeing and what we may see this winter would be a good lesson for people to rethink their approach, to rethink their priorities, and to rethink the option of not eliminating any choice that may prove to be the better choice and the more effective, and also the more efficient choice of the future.

[M065-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:31 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, you know that OPEC PLUS is not just about working on the market management, if you look at the charter of OPEC PLUS, you will numerate so many things that we could do together. So, if we, for example, attended to this market situation, we could trigger so many of these other activities that would be even bring us more together, and in perpetuity, because the mandate of the charter is actually very comprehensive, it allows us for co-operation in so many things, and therefore, while attending to the market, we could also work on so many other things.

[M065-19] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:11:16 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We also have the International Energy Forum which we are hosting, as Saudi Arabia, and today I did mention that may be the forum because it encompasses all the major producers and consumers of energy, and specifically oil and gas, that this could be a good platform for having a meeting to work collaboratively with each other. The one thing which I am sure of is that OPEC Plus had emphasized market management, and regulation of markets.

[M065-20] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:11:54 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I think what we are seeing today in gas and coal is that the other extreme is not working. The idea that free markets and spot markets will be much more efficient market, and would be the guarantor for stability of the whole market, I think it is proven to be failing, and it is failing miserably. We in OPEC Plus have chosen the so-called central banker choice or central banker model which believes that there is nothing called a market that is not regulated.

[M065-21] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:38 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

You know Adam Smith had come up with this so-called there is always this invisible hand, I do not think, I do not believe that invisible hand, I think the visible hand should be there. This is what we have achieved in OPEC Plus, and the stability we brought to the oil market, it happened because of the visible market, visible hand that in the form of the OPEC PLUS.

[M065-23] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:13:09 · Interview-Saudi energy minister with Russian 24 TV (ver 2) · 2021-10-15 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I would say the one that we did not achieve an agreement on the 6th of March 2020, but I would also say a month, and a week after that, which is the meeting that took place on 11th and 12th of April was the most joyful and successful meeting I have ever attended, because it proven that we parted in the 6th of March with differences, but in the 12th, we were able to bridge our differences, and move and attend to this market in a very serious way, had we not done that, I do not think where we would be today.