The failure to invest enough in fossil fuels before cleaner alternatives can fully meet today’s energy needs is a “recipe for disaster,” according to Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, group CEO of ADNOC.
Oil producers have limited ability to react to further disruptions in energy supplies as spare crude capacity is currently less than 2% of global demand, Al Jaber noted, speaking at the Bloomberg Emerging + Frontier Forum 2022 in New York.
“If we under-invest in the energy system of today before the energy system of tomorrow is ready, we will only make matters worse,” Al Jaber said.
He added, “That doesn’t give a lot of room to maneuver. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster.”
A supply crunch has sent oil and natural gas prices soaring since the pandemic, helping drive inflation all over the globe to the highest levels in decades and leading the US to unleash a record amount of crude from its strategic reserves as a way to rein in prices. Shortage risks have been aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
Much more investment is necessary in technologies to mitigate and eliminate emissions from energy-heavy sectors including manufacturing, construction and agriculture, with “sensible” regulation, tax incentives and “substantial government funding” to help fill the gap, Al Jaber said.
He said the United Arab Emirates is “fully committed” to the energy transition, though “more realism about the scale of the challenge” is needed to properly address it. ADNOC has invested $50 billion in renewables including solar over the past two decades and plans to spend a similar amount in coming years.
Al Jaber’s comments follow similar comments made by Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, who recently said that continuing underinvestment in the hydrocarbons sector at a time when alternatives to fossil fuels were still not readily available was among the root causes of energy crisis.
Aramco has been investing to raise the kingdom’s oil capacity to 13 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027, but Nasser warned that globally investments in hydrocarbons were still, “too little, too late, too short term.”
