Qatar Energy Minister: demand for oil and gas will continue for a long time and industry must act responsibly

Qatar’s Energy Minister and leader of the Gulf state’s petroleum company has re-affirmed that the world will need oil and gas “for a very long time” and it should not be demonised.

The message from His Excellency Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs in Qatar, and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, came during the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development, in Riyadh.

 Hydrocarbons still needed

He told a panel discussion, titled People, Policy, Finance: Realising an Equitable Energy Transition, that demonising oil and gas would not do humanity any good. “Demand for oil is going to be there for a very long time,” said Minister Al-Kaabi. “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. 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.”

Vital energy topics

The panel placed special emphasis on issues related to a realistic and equitable energy transition that will enhance energy’s role as an enabler of development, while achieving global climate goals. Panel guests included HRH Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Al Saud, the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy at the European Commission, Occidental Petroleum Corporation President and CEO Vicki Hollub, Darren Woods, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, and Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum.

Transition for all

Minister Al-Kaabi highlighted the importance of access to energy, including for a billion people who do not have basic electricity, and the need for a fair energy transition. “There will be anywhere between one and two billion additional people within the next 30 years who will need access to energy,” he said in the Saudi capital. “Therefore, we shouldn’t be selfish and just talk about what we want for our house and forget the neighbourhood, if you will.”

The Minister also stressed the role of “responsible producers” and cited Qatar as having the world’s lowest emissions in an LNG scheme from “production to ship”. 

“Since 2015, we’ve been injecting two and a half million tons per annum of CO₂ that we’re capturing from our LNG facilities,” he said. “We have been doing that long before anybody was talking about sequestration or capture.”

Securing energy responsibly

Highlighting Qatar’s LNG expansion projects in the North Field - set to reach 142 million tons per annum by 2030 - the minister revealed his country would sequester 11 million tons of carbon.

“Add to that the construction of 104 LNG ships, powered by LNG,” he said. “We are building the largest blue ammonia plant in the world that has solar power and CO₂ sequestration facilities. We are also capturing CO₂ from our production sites in the north and sending via pipeline across Qatar to be injected in the oil field of Dukhan as part of our enhanced oil recovery efforts. We are doing our part, and we have many great stories to tell,” said Minister Al-Kaabi. “We are responsible producers, but not many care to look at that.”