Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser speaks at the CERAWeek Oil Summit in Houston, Texas, on March 18, 2024.
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Oil executives have been heavily criticized for speaking out against the viability of a clean energy transition at a US conference, with campaigners denouncing the industry’s claims that ditching fossil fuels “has been a clear failure on most fronts”.
On Monday, Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser told a panel at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas, that there was an “urgent need” to refocus the transition strategy.
The chief executive of the world’s largest energy company has advised policymakers to abandon the “fantasy” of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest “fully” in fossil fuels to reflect growing demand. Saudi Aramco and Saudi Energy Ministry officials have previously advocated continued investment in hydrocarbons to avoid energy shortages until renewable energy sources fully meet global energy needs.
Nasser’s remarks drew applause from the audience at CERAWeek. CERAWeek is an annual energy conference organized by S&P Global and is known as the “Super Bowl of the industry.”
Other oil and gas executives at the event agreed with Nasser but spoke less directly about the state of the energy transition.
shell CEO Wael Sawan said Europe’s government bureaucracies were slowing the necessary development of clean energy, According to Reuters. Respectively, Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Darren Woods said on Monday that demand for petroleum products “remains very, very healthy.”
“So I think one of the things that policy and a lot of the narratives to date have been very focused on is the supply side of the equation and not addressing the demand side of the equation. And the impact of price on market demand,” Woods told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” program.
“At the same time, the cost of transitioning and moving to a low-carbon society, if that cost is too high and consumers can’t bear it, they’re not going to pay it. We’ve seen that happen in Europe, some people about a year the farm protests and the yellow vest protests before,” he added.
This week, activists slammed the oil industry’s claims.
“The fossil fuel industry continues to make distorted claims about our energy future,” Jeff Ordower, North America director of 350.org, a U.S. organization focused on the global energy transition, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“They work around the clock to undermine the transition to renewable energy and then shamelessly criticize the slowness of the transition itself,” O’Doyle said. “CERAWeek should have emphasized a global vision for a clean and equitable future. Instead, what we got was 20 Talking points from the 1970s.”
Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil and Shell did not immediately comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday.
International Energy Agency and OPEC
The International Energy Agency has previously said it expects global oil, gas and coal demand to peak in 2030 – a forecast that Aramco’s Nasser rejected at CERAWeek.energy regulator explain Last October, it became clear that the transition to clean energy was not only happening, it was “unstoppable.”
“It’s not a question of ‘if’, it’s just ‘how long’ – the sooner the better for all of us,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
Oil-producing countries OPEC and the International Energy Agency have different outlooks for oil demand growth. explain Earlier this month, the agency still expected relatively strong growth in global oil demand in 2024 and 2025.
On March 18, 2024, guests took a group photo at the CERAWeek Innovation Forum held in Houston, Texas, USA. CERAWeek, known as the Super Bowl forum for the global energy industry, kicked off on Monday in Houston, Texas, USA. The topic covers the entire energy sector but focuses on the multi-dimensional energy transition in the four areas of market, climate, technology and geopolitics.
Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
Policymakers are also refocusing on energy supply security in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war with Hamas.
It is against this backdrop that oil and gas executives have repeatedly sought to fend off climate criticism, claiming Big Oil is not to blame for the climate crisis and warning that it is impossible to keep everyone happy in the move away from fossil fuels . fuel.
The combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas is chief driver Climate crisis.
“It’s not surprising to see misleading claims like this at CERAWeek, as fossil fuel companies are the biggest cause of the climate crisis, and their continued political influence is the biggest obstacle to solving the problem,” said David, the advocacy firm’s global industry events manager. Tong told CNBC via email.
“Oil and gas companies are deliberately slowing down and preventing the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, and they’re in Houston this week touting all kinds of dangerous disruptions,” Tang said.
“There’s really no debate”
Some energy companies have Greenhouse gas reduction targets have been scaled back in recent months.
Activist investors are putting pressure on fossil fuel companies to further align their emissions reduction targets with the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, while some urge companies to scale back their green pledges and focus instead on their core Oil and gas business.
“What we’re seeing now is the oil and gas industry desperately trying to stay relevant and doubling down on their old business models, even though they know they’ve been moving toward it for decades,” said Josh Eisenfeld. The products we sell are the cause of the climate crisis,” the corporate responsibility campaign manager at Earthworks, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit, told CNBC via email.
“They have failed to develop their business into one that is consistent with what the science tells us we must do to avoid climate catastrophe. This is really not controversial – the science has been very clear about what needs to be done, and the most important thing is to move away from fossil fuels, “Eisenfeld said. “To think otherwise is delusional,” he added.
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