Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs advocates for responsible oil and gas usage at a panel during the World Economic Forum, stressing the continued need for these resources amid discussions on equitable energy transition.
During the World Economic Forum’s special meeting on global collaboration, growth, and energy for development, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, voiced his disapproval of oil and gas’s demonization, highlighting the energy sector’s nuanced nature.
The Qatar Minister spoke at a panel discussion titled “People, Policy, Finance: Realizing an Equitable Energy Transition” held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Al Kaabi spoke alongside Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia; Kadri Simson, the Commissioner for Energy at the European Commission; Vicki Hollub, the President and CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corporation; Darren Woods, the Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, and Borge Brende, the President of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.
“Demand for oil is going to be there for a very long time. You need petrochemicals that wind farms and solar energy cannot produce, and you also need petrochemical plants to make refined products for a very long time,” Al Kaabi said at the panel discussion on Sunday.
“Gas is going to be needed to power the electricity that is needed for expansion and growth. The most important thing is that we all do it in a responsible manner to make sure that humanity can develop and grow,” he added.
While voicing his disapproval of oil and gas’s demonization, Al Kaabi highlighted the critical issue of access to energy and the need for a fair energy transition.
“There are a billion people who do not have access to basic electricity. There will be anywhere between one and two billion additional people within the next thirty years, who will need access to energy.
Therefore, we shouldn’t be selfish and just talk about what we want for our house and forget the neighbourhood, if you will,” said the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, a state-owned corporation that operates all oil and gas activities in the Gulf country.
To tackle the issue of carbon emissions, Al Kaabi spoke on Qatar’s aims in CO2 capture efforts from production to ship, saying: “Since 2015, we’ve been injecting two and a half million tons per annum of CO2 that we’re capturing from our LNG facilities.”
“We have been doing that long before anybody was talking about sequestration or capture. Qatar has the lowest emissions in an LNG scheme from production to ship in the world,” the Qatari official added.
Growth in global oil demand
Last year, major industry players said at the Energy Asia conference held in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, that oil and gas will continue to be the leading energy sources for decades.
“We think the biggest realization that should come out of this conference is oil and gas are needed for decades to come,” said John Hess, CEO of U.S. oil company Hess Corporation at the conference.
“Energy transition is going to take a lot longer, it’s going to cost a lot more money and need new technologies that don’t even exist today,” he added.
The largest U.S. oil producer, ExxonMobil, has repeated the same findings, stating in an interview that demand will grow in 2050.
“Liquids are projected to remain the world’s leading energy source in 2050, even as demand growth slows beyond 2025,” Erin McGrath, ExxonMobil’s public and government affairs senior advisor, told CNBC.
“Overall, demand for liquids is expected to rise by about 15 million barrels per day by 2050. Almost all the growth will come from the emerging markets of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America,” McGrath added.
A report by the International Energy Agency also states that oil use for transport will decline after 2026, but overall consumption is expected to be supported by solid petrochemical demand.
“The Oil 2023 medium-term market report forecasts that based on current government policies and market trends, global oil demand will rise by 6% between 2022 and 2028 to reach 105.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) – supported by robust demand from the petrochemical and aviation sectors,” the report highlighted
“Despite this cumulative increase, annual demand growth is expected to shrivel from 2.4 mb/d this year to just 0.4 mb/d in 2028, putting a peak in demand in sight,” the report added.
