His Excellency Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), presented the keynote speech at the opening ceremony of ADIPEC 2022.
Addressing the 38th edition of ADIPEC, held under the patronage of the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, HE Dr Al Jaber’s keynote speech focused on how energy security is the foundation of all progress, including economic, social and climate change.
HE Dr Al Jaber was speaking in the presence of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, HH Sheikh Khaledbin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Office and Chairman of the Executive Committee of ADNOC’s Board of Directors, ministers, senior government officials and chief executives from the global energy industry.
HE Dr. Al Jaber, who is also the Chairman of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), noted that “energy is everybody’s top priority” today as the global energy landscape goes through what he described as “a perfect storm”. He argued that now is not the time to point out that long-term under-investment in oil and gas has made a difficult situation even worse as “the data is clear.”
“If we zero out hydrocarbon investment, due to natural decline, we would lose 5 million barrels per day of oil each year from current supplies. This would make the shocks we have experienced this year feel like a minor tremor. If this year has taught us anything, it taught us that energy security is the foundation of all progress – economic social and climate progress,” HE Dr. Al Jaber said.
“The world needs all the solutions it can get. It is not oil and gas, or solar, not wind or nuclear, or hydrogen. It is oil and gas and solar, and wind and nuclear, and hydrogen. It is all of the above, plus the clean energies yet to be discovered, commercialized and deployed.
He continued: “The world needs maximum energy, minimum emissions. This is why our leadership decided to be a first mover in renewable energy, over 16 years ago by launching Masdar. It’s why we were the first country in the region to deploy nuclear power. And it is why ADNOC is making today’s energy cleaner while investing in the clean energies of tomorrow.”
Moving forward, technology will be one of the greatest enablers of the oil and gas industry and this is an area where the industry can amplify and accelerate its impact, according to H.E. Dr. Al Jaber, who also cited the example of carbon capture and storage.
Concluding his remarks, HE Dr. Al Jaber said global efforts should focus on a new, bold, realistic and pragmatic pathway that benefits humanity, the climate and the economy, with COP27 (the 27th UN Climate Change Conference) meeting in Sharm el Sheikh next week and as the UAE prepares to host COP28 (the 28th UN Climate Change Conference), the Emirates Climate Conference.
