Damenews The UAE’s Energy Minister has told CNN that there needs to be ongoing investment in oil and gas alongside energy transition commitments.
In an interview with Becky Anderson at the ADIPEC energy industry event in Abu Dhabi, Suhail al-Mazrouei said he is “worried about just one thing, [it’s] the lack of investments”.
It follows comments from OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais who told CNN at the ADIPEC conference on Tuesday that “by under investing, we are actually endangering energy security…without this I think there are serious possibilities that prices, the volatility, will be increasing as demand grows.”.
When asked about the upcoming OPEC+ meeting Suhail al-Mazrouei said they will meet this week to discuss forecasts and that “we can assure you, we are looking at the demand with a very careful eye because the demand pickup is something that we have seen this year, the growth of this year is beyond what many had expected a few years back. We’re talking about a 2% growth in demand and that is scary.”
The OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial meeting takes place in Vienna on November 26.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
ANDERSON: You say that the industry needs to invest more in producing more fossil fuels, but how can that go hand in hand with your energy transition commitments? This is a question that many people around the world are asking, what is your response?
AL MAZROUEI: Ok, when it comes to the energy mix in UAE the highest investment we are putting is the renewable energy with no doubt. So we are tripling this year, we updated our strategy, triping the installed capacity of renewable energy.
Despite the fact that we have the largest solar projects in the world – we are tripling that by the year 2030 before we call upon the world to do the same. So that’s the call of COP28. We are keen on producing an alternative to gas, which is hydrogen. So we also announced a strategy aiming to produce 1.4 million tons of hydrogen, of which more than 70% is going to be green hydrogen.
ANDERSON: Give me the context for that. What does that mean when you consider the energy mix here?
AL MAZROUEI: 30% of our energy mix will be clean by the year 2030, 38% by the year 2035.
ANDERSON: You say you aim to produce 5 million barrels a day of oil in four yeas time. That is a significant increase. What do you say to those critics who say you cannot be serious about your climate pledge if you are boosting production to record levels?
AL MAZROUEI: First of all, we are not boosting production. We are seeing production capacity, and there’s a difference between production capacity and production. Those barrels will not be produced unless they are needed.
ANDERSON: I will say it looks very likely at this point that we are looking at $100 on the barrel, and I say tat because many analysts in the market are forecasting that. I know you won’t give me a price forecast, but is $100 plus within the range that you would be comfortable with?
AL MAZROUEI: Whatever price suits the consumers and ensures that the demand is healthy, that is the price that we are targeting. That price is going to be a balance between what we supply and what we can supply, and what demand requires.
