HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022

[M092-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:09 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The weather is nice tonight in Riyadh. We Riayadhians like Aramcons, we are very festive people these days, we are enjoying our lives, we are conducting ourselves as easy goers, we are becoming the town of fun and joy, and we are attracting people to come, and we are festive. Why? Because, as my friend from Egypt was saying he was here like 3 times just this month. Why? Because this country is in full motion. Why we are in full motion? Because we are trying to catch up with the lost years, the lost decades. Why? Because we owe it to our youth, and the youth is taking over from all of us, those who were handicapped.

[M092-03] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:21 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The youth are no longer capable of containing the youthful, ambitious Saudis that I have keep talking about. For us to deliver for them, we have to have a stable growth, stable economy, sustainable economy, we cannot afford sitting, no longer sitting on our hands, not being too excessively proactive in assuring ourselves that we will protect our country, as I speak on behalf of everybody here, we protect our economies, and there is nothing called free lunch in today's world. You have to fend for your own self, but fending for yourself alone in our business, in our industry does not work, you have got to work out and develop yourself a cohesive group of willing partners that have the same common denominator that you have with them.

[M092-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:35 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

If you define and find that group or as I call them, the band of brothers. Well, even in the wars band of brothers they do not leave their friends at risks, and they fend for themselves and they work collaboratively in attending to something, that is something as my friends were saying it was an impossible, but I owe it to a person, that if you asked me on the 6th of March 2020, and said, Is it conceivable that the whole world will go through that fiasco of April 2020. I will tell you, it is impossible, but what would be more impossible? And I would have been daydreaming to think that the remedy that we all put together to achieve us the stability that we have earned now would have been even further, more impossible to achieve.

[M092-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:57 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So but in being honest with myself, first and foremost, and then honest with whoever is hearing me today, I have to say it, and I have to say it because I am after saying the truth and bestowing the right honor for the person who delivered us, and his name is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.

[M092-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:33 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Publicly with all my honesty, I will tell you I would not have delivered that, I could not have delivered that, I could not have imagined that, and if you can accept it as a person where I would like to cleanse my consciousness from any remnants of any egotism, but for people that know me, I am long in so many things, but certainly short of egotism. Am I correct, Amin? But because I am and because my colleagues are, we managed to do things because it was so crucial that the size of production and the size of a country was not the relevant issue. What is the relevant issue was the bottom-up consensus building approach that we have created.

[M092-07] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:44 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

That is the only thing that delivered this until today and that what will make us continue delivering our ambitions of the future. We need to keep this consensus building approach, be with us permanently, because without it, we will lose sight of our ambition, collective ambition, and if we cannot achieve our collective ambition, we can never achieve our individual ambitions, so I ask everybody in the industry of our areas, we did not deliver also to our countries or our societies, we delivered to the global industry. Ask any producer, anywhere in planet Earth who produce oil or gas today. If it was not for OPEC Plus, would they be the chairmans and the CEOs of today? And the answer, they would have vanished from planet Earth, and they could have been swallowed by another company, gone to the wind or what have you.

[M092-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:02 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

What we need? We need transparency because we have been transparent. The monthly meeting delivered this, our commitment to the 400 delivered this. We speak with a fluent English? I think by now you can give us that edge. We communicate with the media? Yes, we do. We issue our numbers as OPEC and in monthly reports? Yes, we do. What we are getting, unfortunately, is not the reciprocation that we are hoping for, and I will give you an example, and permit me, my friends to speak on your behalf for something, we have been quiet about it for the last week or so.

[M092-09] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:51 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We have our friends from the IEA. They have been throwing all sorts of numbers. but the funniest set of numbers was issued in December by saying we have a lower demand than OPEC, and everybody else in Planet Earth by a roughly around 800 million barrels of demand, and that story was with them for the last few months, even before the end of 2021, then all of a sudden they realized that there is so-called missing barrels, so in January, they came up with their report about a 730 million barrels of missing barrels. The most illuminating thing about their reporting is that in their latest February report, we have seen, if you permit me to say it a combination of a third-rate sequel of Blame it in Rio plus Finding Nemo.

[M092-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:17 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

All of a sudden they said, uh-huh we found the missing barrels, Where is it? Being consumed in Saudi Arabia ever since 2007 not 2017, 2007 and the rest somewhere in China and somewhere else. Heck I mean, if I as an energy minister or Yasser as a Chairman of Aramco or Amin as a CEO, we do not know whether we were consuming more 500,000 barrels more than we report to our government, to our auditors, and the IEA is only alerting us that, by the way, you are consuming that 500,000 and it is not in your radar. If this is helpful, I do not know what else we could do. In the same vein they continue bragging about not to invest in oil and gas, not to bring capacities.

[M092-11] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:34 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Yet, only two days ago in the IAF, he was seeking more production from OPEC Plus, attributing lack of engagement from OPEC Plus, I do not think that this is a kind of a congenial form of appreciation to what OPEC Plus is being doing, and therefore, you could see us tonight, and if you bring the 23 ministers representing the OPEC Plus, you will see the unanimity, because we believe strongly that we have delivered for ourselves, and I am sorry for taking that much of a time, we have delivered to ourselves, to our economy, to our people and to the entire industry, and if we run a vote in anywhere in planet Earth, especially from our friends, I would not be specific, but run a vote and see how much appreciate OPEC Plus, and I think we will be conformable saying we do have a global constituents. Thank you.

[M092-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:27 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The best part of technology is this button here that I could just flick it, and it would be disquieting for me because I cannot help it, but to see Amin, Nasser is about to sleep, and that goes for all Aramcons, but mindful of the time and the sleeping temptations of our friends from Aramco, and it is the nature of the industry, they are the early birds of Saudi Arabia, and that goes from Dhahran to all the way to Houston, Texas, so and even Aberdeen, not to mention other energy capitals, but be it as it may, I think I did mention once or twice that in April 2020, in the thick of the misery, we made the announcement of going to 30 million barrels of excess, of capacity.

[M092-14] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:13:40 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

There is no other meaningful way of explaining ourselves than having to anchor it to that day that we made that decision, why? Because we believe strongly that and along with the Green Initiative, along with the Middle East Initiative, along with the commitment of Aramco to go for Net Zero of 2050, along with our commitment of 2060 and perhaps and hopefully and most likely even sooner with the technology drive. Leave them keep in mind that we are the only country who had committed to a number without attributing to that number to any type of financial support, financing or any subsidy or any incentives, financial incentives. We are only seekers of technological support and collaboration, not support even collaboration.

[M092-15] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:14:44 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

With that we believe strongly unlike the conventional wisdom, that hydrocarbon can be utilized in so many different ways, so we are even out there with our sustainability program trying to figure out ways and means of how you consume hydrocarbon. Yes, in a more sustainable way, in a clean way, and that goes for oil and gas and everything else, and because of that, we are not confined to what is avail today, we are much more in search for what would deliver us. How can we use every molecule that this country can produce in an effective, efficient, cost-effective, efficient and sustainable way? Whereby we can still consume these molecules, put it to a good use, and also being creative in trying to find means and ways of consuming it.

[M092-16] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:16:03 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

What we are spending most of our money in is technology development. How we are developing that? We work in an ecosystem approach, we bond with everybody. There is literally no energy program in Saudi Arabia that I can think of that we do not work cohesively with so many agencies, goes from ministries to regulatory bodies to The PIF to the state-owned companies, everybody and anybody that has anything to do is plugged in. Why we do it? Because it takes that to happen. How we do it? We become very mindful, extremely mindful of the governance of these institutions, and once the governances of these institutions are protected and attended to, and no one would infringe on them, people would be much more in their comfort zone.

[M092-17] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:13 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I take the greatest pleasure of being a regulator of this industry, but I think if you ask our friends in be it Aramco, be it electricity company, be it SABIC, they would say I hope they do. Let us take them on the side and ask them, probably they will answer you that the ministry as a regulator is an enabling regulator, it is not an inhibiting regulator. We deliver things that they cannot deliver for their own selves, and we make sure that they in achieving their ambitions and goals, we are there with them, supportive with them and bringing them more and more enablers that enable them to achieve their targets and their goals.

[M092-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:18:08 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The recipe of the future is all of us are invited to collaborate to bring more technologies. I think the invitation also goes for let us collaborate on emission reductions of all greenhouse gases of all sectors. If you want to be comprehensive, you need to be inclusive. If you want to be inclusive, then you should not be mindful of, as I said in my speech, cherry picking what source of energy you should use. We should use all of the above, so long as is abated, so long as emissions are mitigated.

[M092-21] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:19:16 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

As I said, I am very mindful of Amin, there came a point that his head was dozing, just almost knocking the shoulder of Yasser, but I would not talk about, the last word is the word of the very young people that you see them back there, whom we are all hoping that we see them in front of us here. Again, Aramco had delivered and that is why it is the exclusive host of this event, but it is not because it is wealth in funding and Aramco it is wealth in competence, capabilities, engineers and huge ambition, and they are delivering the huge ambition of Aramco, which is the ambition of the country.

[M092-22] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:20:34 · HRH Minister of Energy at Ministerial Session - IPTC 2022 · 2022-02-22 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Therefore we like the idea that Aramco is the exclusive host because we know for certain that every year we can showcase what Aramco is doing, but to be honest, more important, what the country is doing, and to make me more proud, what the youth of Saudi Arabia are delivering. That is it.