Saudi Aramco To Double Gas Output
Saudi Aramco aims to double its natural gas production over the coming decade and will promote it, the company CEO Amin H. Nasser told 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul July 10.
“We aim to double our natural gas production to 23bn ft³/day over the coming decade, and raise the share of gas in the Kingdom’s utilities to about 70%, the highest of any G20 nation,” he said.
According to company CEO, Saudi Aramco plans to invest more than $300bn over the coming decade to reinforce its pre-eminent position in oil, maintain spare oil production capacity and pursue a large exploration and production program centred on conventional and unconventional gas resources.
Leveraging innovation and technology to make the use of oil and gas ultra-clean relates to Saudi Aramco’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. “We have collaborated with many oil and gas companies to promote low-emission solutions, to include our commitment to the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s $1bn investment fund to develop and rapidly deploy those technologies,” he said.
Nasser also noted that Saudi Aramco is prioritising the direct conversion of oil to petrochemicals as a major part of its long-term strategic focus. The company is also investing in solar energy, having launched a phased program to build an initial renewable capacity of 9.5 GW by 2023.
"Relying on new energy sources is a complicated situation, a new alternative energy source will not be able to meet the need of the whole energy demand," Nasser said.The role of oil as a vital source of energy to the world is expected to continue for the long term despite the growth of alternatives.
“There’s a growing belief that the world can prematurely disengage from proven, reliable energy sources like oil and gas, on the assumption that alternatives will rapidly deploy,” Nasser said. In the next 25 years a doubling of the world economy, plus an additional two billion energy consumers will result in a lengthy energy transition that alternative sources such as renewables cannot adequately support, according to Nasser.
“About $1 trillion in investments has been lost in the current downturn, concurrent to growing oil demand and the natural decline of developed fields. Conservative estimates suggest we need about 20mn [additional] barrels/day over the next five years to counter these effects, ” he said.
The industry must adopt a future strategy calculated for the energy transformation. “Part of the efforts will be transforming our own business model to ensure that oil and gas are not just proven, reliable energy sources, but are as clean and affordable as possible, without compromising the world’s energy security,” Nasser concluded.
Kama Mustafayeva