Future Aviation Forum 2022

[M097-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:25 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

No, I do not think so. I have always and will continue to say it, energy security is a must. It is the main pillar of how you can manage sustainable energy without energy security is something I cannot expect to be in any time of the day a reality. I also believe in economic growth, and you would see that fundamentally that energy security is a main pillar for that, and I also believe that if we do not have energy security, and if we do not have economic prosperity, growth and what have you, I do not think that you will be able to meet the sustainability goals, including attending to climate change.

[M097-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:22 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

These 3 things should not be compromised, and they should be attended to accumulate you know, as a trio, I do not think the world can afford getting into a zero-sum game in attending to these three issues. However, I maintain that energy security is more supreme.

[M097-07] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:49 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Absolutely.

[M097-09] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:13 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

No, I think it just provides everybody with a reality check. Basically it is a reality check of how aspirations be it good aspiration or decent aspiration or not. How it can be compromised by the realities of the day now. Crises and what have you can bring much more emphasis and much more focus, but even before the recent crisis, you still had big arguments ever since May last year, when that so-called, still call it la la land scenario on net zero had been smacked with so many realities.

[M097-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:06 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

One of them is cost, you know, we are probably here with the right audience. Aviation is an industry, both being the manufacturers of cars, of airplanes I am sorry or the service providers. I cannot think of an industry that went through havoc over the last 50 years in trying to survive, in trying to be competitive and live up to the expectation of the essential service provisions upon which they could make a living and upon which they could survive.

[M097-12] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:49 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

It is, this industry went through the whole book, including cut-throat competition all the way to the essence of surviving including mergers, and including acquisition, including vanishing. I still remember, I would call myself one of the senior citizens the famous Pan-American building in New York. You do not see it anymore, you do not see so many of these airlines, simply because they did not forfeit themselves with the first and foremost being equipped with attending to reality, and ensuring that they could survive.

[M097-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:06:41 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The way we see it as a fuel provider ourselves, and contributing to the notion of energy security as a pillar, as a main pillar of this industry is that we have been working with the industry, just to make sure, and we had been working with our friends from the Ministry of Transportation and being a solution provider as opposed to being a, the way we would do it is we are looking at it holistically. In fact, you will be amazed that, and I am sure some of you here will be amazed to realize that we are working in all of the above type of approach, so just if you do not mind, just give me quick examples.

[M097-15] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:38 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And by the way, you know, let us put things in perspective. Aviation contribute to nothing more than 2% of an entire emissions of today. Be it as it may be, be it is small or big, I think the whole world congregated on the idea that we should try to provide solutions to emission reductions of all sectors of which we are, I think, in agreement with, simply because again, it fits our holistic approach that our holistic approach in terms of emissions, we want to reach out to all sectors, to all greenhouse gases, and using every tool in our kit, even if that tool in the kit are not available, we should work hard with others to provide these tools that would enable us in the future to move forward.

[M097-17] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:10 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Very funny, you know, it is in this very room and chamber, I did put together that idea November 2019, and to some of the audience, I sounded like an alien coming with this fancy idea here and there., but as you have rightly said, Nasser. It has been accepted, approved by the G20, and we made it a way of our life in the ecosystem as energy ecosystem, so even with this issue of the aviation, we are also profoundly looking at it from a carbon circular carbon economy approach.

[M097-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:53 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are reaching out to all of these components now, knowing the history of both, and we are looking at both, we are talking about the manufacturer of the planes and the service providers of traveling. If you want to address the future requirement of the energy sector for that aviation sector at both industries, the service provider and the manufacturer, you will have to look at holistically at 5 different things. You have to look at the body or the fuselage of the plane and how you could help in bringing more material, different materials to reduce the weight of the plane, the reduction of the weight of the plane help. In fact, not only helps in terms of reducing consumption of energy, but also help in improving the aerodynamics of the plane, which subsequently also helps in reducing emissions

[M097-20] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:11:13 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Fuel efficiency and therefore emissions. There is also a challenge on engine and engine efficiency. I have to say that this industry had been self-motivated with this environment that they had to survive with, that they had to be efficient at all level, including the manufacturer of planes had to work very hard, laboriously hard to provide engines that are more efficient and therefore can reduce costs, and therefore, they as a manufacturer will be better fitted to be chosen by airlines to procure their planes from.

[M097-21] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:04 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So there is the self-motivation element, plus the airline industry was also self-motivated to go for which would of these planes, that they would include in their fleet to ensure that they continue to be cost effective and competitive, that is why we are working and that is why we had this so-called keep in mind that from 66'S until today, I think the number is 80% of emission reductions.

[M097-23] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:43 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Bottom line and.

[M097-25] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:44 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

and more into efficiency of the engine, efficiency of the materials that are used. This is a continuous challenge and will continue with us, and keep in mind that the service use of flying had also increased in terms of size of traveling per hour. All of these things had increased, and yet you managed 80% reduction of emissions.

[M097-27] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:13:35 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

No, I think there is another added pressuring element, which is public pressure. It is not a state secret that people are conscious of what they are doing and what they are consuming, including traveling. It is a consumption component and people are making a choice today, which is that we would not like to even travel with a less carbon of it, and therefore we have to work with the industry, and that is why we have a program called sustainability, there we are working both, we are working with the with the manufacturers on engines.

[M097-28] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:14:17 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are working with them on material, and that is why, you know, SABIC has been engaged with so many factory manufacturers, both on fiber, and carbon fiber and polymer. We believe that this had the more use of polymers and carbon fiber will continue improving weight. Keep in mind that we had like a 53% reduction of weights and what have you, as a result of just the internal components. That is why we believe also that we are also working on the fuel aviation fuel, and we believe strongly that low carbon fuel, aviation fuel is going to be the transitionary fuel for the future.

[M097-30] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:15:20 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

It will be low carbon. We have to be again, this is the difference between la la land and reality, it has to be low carbon. How you get low carbon, still within the constraint, as you have rightly said, on the circular carbon economy. What we are doing is that we are getting to the source itself, which is the refinry itself by bulbening the carbon sequestration component, and that component will mitigate emissions from the source, which is the refinery plus the collected CO2. Believe it or not, you could create some more synthetic fuel out of it, so it is not going to be.

[M097-32] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:16:12 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Absolutely, so it is not going to go to waste, and we in this room, Saleh had gone. I did mention it and will repeat it, we are going to do it the casino way, which is we will never leave any single molecule not to be used. This is not a frogo approach, it is the circular carbon economy approach. Synthetic fuels will come out of the CO2 that is collected. I wait to see how biofuels will deliver us because in all the literature we reviewed, I think it is only 1% will constitute of biofuels being utilized by 2030. We are not saying no biofuels, but we see these things will evolve over a much longer timespan because they are going through their challenges, the challenges of their own, including hydrogen by the way.

[M097-33] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:29 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But we are also engaged in hydration, and funny enough which is something I would say with pride that the manufacturer of biofuel in the UK is no other than a company, a Saudi company called Alfanar, so we are there, we will be doing all of the above. Again, I keep repeating for everybody, trust me on this one. We are not in a juncture where we are into a cherry picking approach. We have to look at all of the above, and we have to be very mindful, and effective in attending to sustainability goals, but not to go through that. You will never deliver that with the so-called cherry picking approach, you cannot make a preconceived conclusion today and say, I will do this and that, but I will never allow, it is almost like wearing a blinder.

[M097-34] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:18:43 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

You have got quite a few choices and you should look at all the choices that may, including by the way, working hard on land and aviation operations, which, again, that will give you the little contribution here, including greening airports, and by that, you could use electrical cars, you could use even greening airports by itself, every molecule that you or every component that you could enhance in this holistic approach, which is the circular carbon economy approach, can deliver us some more, so we are not in competition with biofuels. We are saying all of the above will be required.

[M097-35] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:19:36 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And over time, I will give you statistics and I am not the expert, but, you know, even in Saudi Arabia. It is in the vision of Saudi Arabia that probably traveling within Saudi Arabia will probably grow 2 to 3 folds by 2030, and we have our own Green Initiative and we have our Middle-East Green Initiative and certainly we have a commitment that we are discharging as we speak on the form of our national determined

[M097-37] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:20:11 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

NDCS, and we have a target to achieve, so with all of the above, we are also acting as a good citizen, global citizen, and we want to achieve these goals, yet we taking it an extra step by being part of the solution or the provider of solutions as opposed to be the cause of the problem.

[M097-39] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:21:21 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

What you see today is a reality that people should not forfeit. I mean, you could always put your hands and say, I do not see it, but all what happened over the last 2 years since the commencement of the endemic or pandemic is a reduction of investment, a reduction of all of the above, and look at the result, what is surfacing now for everybody is the wrong market signals, that inhibited people to invest, and by the way, you know, I could see it coming in aviation, too, and because let us not forget that 2 million barrels of consumption has not been achieved yet because of lack of traveling and lack of.

[M097-41] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:22:29 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

From jet fuel. Can you imagine what would happen if people go back to a state of normalcy and traveling or go back to where it was? So that will add another additional challenge to how to provide fuel today, as we speak today. Check it out on Nasser, and I would ask our friends here to check it out. Look at oil prices today, crude prices, Look at what is happening to jet fuels in the US, in Europe in some cases, or for that matter, talking about diesel or gasoline. It is all mobility, all mobility fuels have skyrocketed. If people are complaining about crude prices, they should check how much it is costing to fill a plane in the States, in Europe and elsewhere. It is not a peculiar situation on a specific zone or a specific country, and the gap between crude oil prices and these products in some cases, it is actually 60%.

[M097-43] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:23:40 · Future Aviation Forum 2022 · 2022-05-09 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Why? Because there is lack of refining capacity. Why? Because of market signal. See, this is an industry, energy, aviation, plane manufacturers, it is all about signals. If the signals of the market are not conducive, people would refrain from investing, if people refrain from investing, there is a consequence to that, and that consequence will emerge in the form of lack of available supply, that lack of available supply will transform itself into being inflationary or into a severe competition of how I am as a final consumer will get to from one point to the other and not to be paying a dearer and more expensive price.