16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026

[M180-01] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:05 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I am a cannibalist by design and so I would mean more that I would be adding more predicament. I like your question there because you know it's not about availability of supply. Let's say that the dust settled and everybody now is concurring with the idea that we need every source of energy, every molecule, that people should have the right to exploit their own available domestic or national resources.

[M180-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:45 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And that's all congregate, that it's all about decarbonizing. It's not about don't do this, don't do this, don't use this, you're a good boy, you're a good girl, you're a bad boy, you're a bad girl, all of the above. But what worries me the most is that even if we settle all of the above and everybody is congregating toward all of these three things and best, whether you have any resource to bring energy, including coal, because nobody's gonna invest in it eventually.

[M180-03] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:28 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Because the other reality would be is that people would run out of energy. This is not yet, we haven't gotten to the seven billion. But even if you want to do all of the above, using all of the above, enabling investment by all of the above, every institution, every investment bank, you know, all of this hoopla, as Sharif was saying, we are at the oasis.

[M180-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:00 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I wonder what kind of oasis we'll be in. Because that oasis will be an oasis of high cost. And then what would happen to affordability? So let's not over imagine that we're going to get into the nirvana type of thing.

[M180-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:27 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

It will be challenging. Even if we use every molecule of energy, let's always remember that cost curves are going higher. They're not coming down, they're going higher.

[M180-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:44 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

The only country that I could vouch for and I could show it, that we will have cost of electricity coming down is Saudi Arabia. But it's going to go down simply because we are changing from moving from liquid to gas and to renewable. This pivot is helping us to claim that we're rationalizing cost of electricity, but it would come over time.

[M180-07] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:14 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But then eventually everything cost will go higher. So we will have an enjoyable period to brag about and to vouch for what we have done. It will pay off because we will increase our export, it will be all of the above.

[M180-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:33 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But I can quite candidly tell you, oil costs will go higher, coal costs will go higher, renewable costs will be going higher, all of the nuclear will be higher, every molecule of energy cost will be higher. Every infrastructure or prerequisite of investments to convert this energy to usable energy will go higher. Refining capacities are rare to see them being built and if they are built they will have a hard time to pay for their investment.

[M180-09] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:08 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So people are deterred from investing in refining. As a dichotomy for me, we were in a discussion yesterday with our friends from Turkey, wanting to instigate, further instigate a route for our IMEC, which is the corridor thing. And then we were faced last night with the reality that Europe is determined not to, for any electricity that comes its way or hydrogen that comes its way, it should not use any Chinese manufactured equipments, transmission lines and what have you.

[M180-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:00 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Just for the purpose of comparison, we have high voltage transmission lines being built and it's almost finished. One of them in Saudi Arabia is stretching approximately a thousand two hundred kilometers. That is from east, from central kingdom to all the way to the south part of the kingdom.

[M180-11] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:28 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And another one which is another nine hundred kilometers. We know that we got it in the most efficient way and cost effective way. Yesterday I think there was an article in FD about how Saudi Arabia is moving fast and furious on batteries.

[M180-12] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:51 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I did a presentation for the FII showing them that we are almost at war when it comes to batteries with China, the very country that we are using their batteries. But the scalability is helping us. So, we don't go for small scale, we go for big scale.

[M180-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:06:15 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Not a lot of people understand that when you have an energy mix, and I claim that ours will not be as complicated as some other countries because we will be more gas renewable. But if I show you what it takes to move from here to there, just on transmission lines and distribution and control centers, we will be spending no less than a hundred and twenty billion dollars over the next three, four years, just and I ask you now, who would afford that? Not afford paying for electricity, but who will have the money to invest and do these investments? What are the assurances that even if you invest, you will have the buyer? And how much the cost of the things that you invested in producing and how it is amenable to the idea of affordability? And if it isn't, what would happen to the economies? And how much people need to be conscious of that before talking about the seven billion? Even with the one or two billion that have their own energy today, I just honestly question the affordability issue and it is being compounded now by the diversity of scaling up to different uses of energy.

[M180-14] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:08:03 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I was one of them. I keep telling people, although before the company’s visit to the U.S., we were working hard with our friend from the U.S. trying to get accessibility to chips and what have you and what have you. And we were working on uranium and rare earth and all of the above. So, Secretary Bergman wanted to come, I was in Washington. And I said, you know, I can't leave Washington because I'm supposed to wait for you to come to discuss so many of these things.

[M180-15] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:08:49 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So arguably we have created something which I would call it a precedent. I've never lived a day that I think it would happen, which is basically the host was in Washington, the guest was in Riyadh, and I was handling him virtually. So, I had a 5:30 in the morning meeting with them, with our people, and we worked. The one room I wanted them to see was how much we, not just the energy ministry, but actually 18 different agencies have worked for the best part of eight weeks to resolve a serious issue. And there is one more issue that we are sorting it out now, which is where to put the AI centers.

[M180-16] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:46 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

What is the availability of electricity? And what would be the most fitting sites that does not interfere with everything else? And how best we could serve these centers by making sure that everything is available? The quality of land is an issue. The availability of electricity is an issue. The availability of water is an issue. The availability of fiber is an issue. The amount of infrastructure that you need to build is an issue. The accessibility to housing or at least transportation routes, you know, highways, things like that, for people to have a decent life. After all, these people would work there, but then they have to have a home to live and food to eat and accessibility to a normal living standards.

[M180-17] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:50 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So, we have to make sure that it's accessible somewhere adjacent to cities or just in the preferential cities, and yet you have to ensure that these services are available. That exercise could not have happened. And by the way, if you have the time, I could bring the same people and they would show you what we started with and what we ended up with. And we have identified 50 big sites that can handle up to, all the way to any potential, up to 20 giga of electricity, which is 12 giga when it comes to AI.

[M180-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:11:33 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

That we know that it has water, it has electricity, the land is fantastic for actually using it, fiber is available, infrastructure needs to be built, and yet if you look at the amount of money that needs to be invested to bring all of the above, including the data centers, it's just astronomical. So, I know what it takes now as a late comer, what it takes to have an AI center. I'm not an expert in AI.

[M180-19] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:11 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

In fact, I make sure that I don't talk about AI because I will show, I will demonstrate my lack of understanding for it. But then, you know, after running that exercise, I made Secretary Berg to come and see the room, how they operate, how they did it. And he looked around and he was kind enough, decent enough, when he came out of that, because he visited that room before I got with him into that video conference, he said to me, you know, I asked our guys, can we do something like this?

[M180-20] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:12:54 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And unfortunately for our friends from the US, they know it better than me, it cannot happen. Because you have multi-layer of governments and these things cannot happen. You cannot bring 18 different agencies to work together. Is the land, who owns the land? Is it the government? Yes. How much is it going to, is it PIF? Do we have it as a concession for Aramco as part of the agreement? Do we have it as this? We have to go through this, all of the above. We could, and even with that, we know that the cost will be astronomical.

[M180-21] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:13:33 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Because, you know, for us, it's another way of exporting electricity. I was even corrected this morning by one of my colleagues, he said, don't use exporting data, exporting data solutions. As he said, preferably you should say data solutions. So, I'm correcting. So, to us, as long as we get cost less reasonable profit for a utility, for electricity, that's fantastic. So, we will be exporting.

[M180-22] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:14:10 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But I know for certain that all what you hear about the ambitions of AI here and there and elsewhere, we have a precedent. Sorry I've taken so much time, but I'm trying to bring sanity to this whole thing. More sanity than what our colleagues had shared with you, which is, let's remember hydrogen. Can everybody remember what everybody was talking about hydrogen four years ago? I have it, I could share it with you. You know, the number went from 100 million tons a year, 90 million, but variations are there. Mackenzie would say this, BCG would say this, whatever the consultancy were doing, but they were hovering around the 90 - 100 million tons. And then the number came down, 60 - 70, 50 - 40. Check it now. This is just four years ago.

[M180-23] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:15:15 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I don't think it's even as close as 12 million tons. It's not, well, Masab you're here, Aramco has been tendering with our friends from Korea. Twice they won it, and then twice they cancelled it.

[M180-24] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:15:34 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We're building in Yanbu hydrogen plants. We're barely getting people to come and buy. Why? Because the infrastructure. Again, we're getting into an energy, we are not having energy policies. We're having energy advocacies. And there is a big difference between an energy policy and energy advocacy.

[M180-25] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:16:01 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Advocacy, (…) they put it, they write it. Politicians enjoy talking about it as being modern, foresight, blah, blah, blah. But they leave the details for the others. The devil is in the details. And unless people focus in the details, they're going to be living with a charade of a pipe dream, but they will not realize that it's a pipe dream until something hit.

[M180-26] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:16:34 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

So unfortunately, I have to say to you all that I'm just waiting for that reality check to happen, for people to calm down, be sensible, try to put their themes in order, make sure that it will be bad for us all to smack that wall.

[M180-27] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:00 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But if we have to, to bring to have a reality check, probably this is the only thing that may happen, and there is some grace into it, which is to bring sanity to when talking about energy security, energy affordability, and energy sustainability.

[M180-28] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:20 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

You've been accused of so many things. But our friends here can testify that when it comes to Aramco, scope one, scope two, and I have to give it to the others, including our friends from Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, honestly, we shouldn't be compared with the others.

[M180-29] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:17:41 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But again, it's the narrative, it's the occupation of forget about the real thing and focus on the advocacy. I hope I brought some type of sanity in this discussion, but I await what will happen in the next two, three years. You will never see these ambitions of AI happen, simply because people will have to choose between bringing electricity to homes, working offices, or dedicating it to AI, and with other that may come as a fashionable …

[M180-30] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:18:25 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

It's like being in a fashion show. Today it's Louis Vuitton, the other time it's Christian Dior, and then Hermes bought this new bag. So welcome to the energy fashion show.

[M180-31] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:18:50 · 16th IEA IEF OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks | 2026 · 2026-02-05 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I had to put some feminism to it, after all Caroline would not be happy with me.