The Rise of Green Molecules

[M141-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:41 · The Rise of Green Molecules · 2024-04-28

Well, first of all, good morning everybody. Again, it's a great day for us as Saudi Arabia. I'll keep repeating it all day long and tomorrow. It’s also a testament of how much we've been perceived, as Saudi Arabia, as a forthcoming giant. And instead of us going out around the world, the world has just come to us. So, with a great deal of pride, and I'm very grateful to the people who put together this event. And it's gonna be not only the first and last, it will be a first amongst many, many. There is a personal issue that would like to settle with my good old friend. I was in New York for Ten Days. I was looking for you, but I was told you were a fugitive, so I had to come back here today … yesterday, I had to come back yesterday, actually late afternoon from New York, not finding you there, so I opted to come here and catch up with you.

[M141-03] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:46 · The Rise of Green Molecules · 2024-04-28

It's very simple. I know as a host I should give most of the space and the time for our friends who came all the way from their respected countries to share their thoughts, ideas and their own plans and anticipations for the future. In a small, short, if I can concise minute or two. I think our plans are clear to everybody. We've been communicating it all over. We really are focusing on the molecule oil. And I'm glad that the title of this session is all about molecule. And indeed, we look for molecules and therefore we should be first and foremost, I would call it color agnostic, that is, you know, you know, I read lots of novels and watch movies. So, I believe I saw there are two good novels, movies. One is the Color Purple and the other one is The Scarlet Letter. But we're not in the movie business. We are in the molecule business, and the molecule business is more to do with how can we produce clean energy, and clean energy has no color. It has a carbon footprint that we need to manage and mitigate and once it is mitigated, I think we should be indifferent on what color it may have. I think stigmatizing things would in any way may narrow our own choices, as opposed to expand our choices. We believe as Saudi Arabia that we should be doing all of the above.

[M141-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:06:39 · The Rise of Green Molecules · 2024-04-28

We believe that the world would require every source of energy, be it hydrocarbon-based, be it renewable with nuclear, be it, uh .., be it synthetic fuels, be it a process of what we are trying to do, for example, here in Saudi Arabia, on, for example, in carbon capture and sequestration, we have and we have carbon capture and utilization. In fact, we're building a 1.5 Million Ton Facility. And we believe in the concept of hubs, which is aggregating all of these things to allow you to have the flexibility and means to deliver. I just give you a small example in Yanbu. We're putting that hub, we're gonna capture. This way, it makes our molecule cleaner, the CO2 that we will capture will be utilized by producing hydrogen and clean hydrogen, will or..or renewable hydrogen, and comingling the electricity with the CO2, it gives you different alternatives. So, yes, we believe that we should be engaged in synthetic fuels. We believe in self over time. We believe in synthetic methane. And we are open to the choices subject to economics.

[M141-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:08:30 · The Rise of Green Molecules · 2024-04-28

Myself and our friends from PIF and our colleagues from ARAMCO have been all over the place. I think Patrick is aware of that, Patrick is part of our story and narrative because one of the fundamental things that we're having, for example, and we're.. our friends in Germany is about that, France, Italy, Holland. We are.. our business model is just quite libertarian, if you could call it. We don't mind partnering with everybody. We're willing to move these molecules, especially Hydrogen in ammonia format, in piping format. That's why we've created that corridor idea, both East, both West. We're working with the Korean, with the Japanese. We're working with our friends in UAE on that east part of the corridor. We were.. in a way, we're saying.. we can the model can incubate any business model that gets us through the.. the Litmus Test, which is economics. But there are challenges. There are lack of clarity on the policies. There are lack of clarity, I'm talking about the receiving end, the consumer, lack of clarity on the incentives, lack of clarity on what it takes to develop these technologies. Patrick, you were with me few months ago. We've talked about even if we move hydrogen in ship, by shipping as in ammonia, that ammonia would have to be again reimbursed to be back again into a hydrogen or a gaseous. That technology is still challenging. I left it still challenging. Patrick has Half a Million Ton, as I recall. You're willing to buy hydrogen for it, but You're willing to buy hydrogen. He's not willing to buy ammonia than he takes into that.

[M141-07] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:37 · The Rise of Green Molecules · 2024-04-28

There is an infrastructure element. We're working with our friend from Holland and Germany to use the hub that they have created, but it will be ammonia. Now, the scale, I would urge. Don't believe what I'm saying. Just check it out. You know, the ambitions was 90 Million Tons. Then, it moves globally, then it moves to 60-40. Now, just recently, it went back to 29, 18. The real measure is the FAD, and you'll see the number of FED had dropped like a stone. For example, the EU, their ambition is about 10 Million Ton by 2030. Those that project that, you know, went through the final line are only 400, about 4% of that. How it is conceivable hat in 24 that only4% of the target has been achieved. How people can imagine that that 10 Million can be achieved, and more important, at what price, at what cost? Our number shows that Hydrogen without incentives, without, without, without .. . You're talking about the 300 to 200. I'm talking about the Green Hydrogen. Although again, I don't like the idea of colors. Green Hydrogen is between roughly 250 to $ 300, $300 per barrel of oil equivalent. Who is .. What is kind of a business, acumen would make? Would choose to buy a 250 or $300 Million a barrel, not a ton, a barrel. And again, we've been at it with so many governments. There are serious players, I have to admit, which we are trying to achieve something. But again, take it from me. We are, we have all of the above solutions, including by the way, those industries that have the so-called hard-to-abate industries. We're willing to incubate them here. We're willing to produce and commit ourselves to the Hydrogen requirements they require, be it hydrocarbon-based, be it renewable-based, whatever it is. We're willing the format of the structure of joint venturing where again, libertarian about it, because actually we are interested in making sure that people know what it takes to deliver all of them.

[M141-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:44:39 · The Rise of Green Molecules · 2024-04-28

Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity. I just want to make sure than we depart with some hopeful, an idea or two. First of all, let's .. let's congregate on the principle that, you know, being Green is not an ideology or a demagogy or a religion. And there is a script for it, and upon which people will be tested. Are you faithful or a believer, or you are not a believer? So, we have to take that out of our RADAR, because what is going on now in today's environment is that it reminds me of the Inquisition period. Are you a believer or non- believer? And if you're a believer, you are a good boy. If you are not a believer, may God send you to Hell and may get you be burned in hydrocarbon and blah…blah…blah, and unabated hydrocarbon tries to make it even worse. So, but I honestly believe that being environmentally-conscious is, I think a humanistic duty for all of us. Those who are incubating the Earth today, and those that will incubate it afterwards. In fact, our duty is to make sure that whatever we do today cannot bring any harm and cannot disturb the potential of any future … future aspiration to those generations to come. Be it as it may, I think we should also be conscious of the fact that the energy challenges is so big, because we still now we're talking about data centers, the amount of electricity that would be required, the electrification itself, and the component of electrification which would require also hydrocarbons, including plastic and what have you. My point is simply said, the world now, and the world in the future will require every molecule. Let's work together comprehensively to make sure that these molecules will be clean molecules or electrons that will be also clean electrons. The world needs all of the above.