Chairman speaks on the ‘long-term’ view at PRIORITY summit

Aramco chairman HE Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan recently participated in a panel session titled “In Conversation: A Dream Reimagined” at the PRIORITY summit in Miami, organized by the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute.

The PRIORITY 2023 forum was designed to be a disruptive global conversation, bringing together world leaders from business, government, academia, civil society, technology, and the media, to engage in discussions to shape the global agenda.

During the session, moderated by Dina Powell McCormick of Goldman Sachs, Al-Rumayyan discussed a number of topics, including the importance of continued investment in oil and gas as part of the global energy transition.

“What distinguishes Aramco and Saudi Arabia in general is the long-term view,” Al-Rumayyan told the audience in Miami. “It takes time, a longer time to have a full transition.”

While renewable energy plays a role in meeting energy demand, hydrocarbons will continue to play a major role in meeting global demand for energy and feedstock for decades to come, Al-Rumayyan added. “We need fossil fuels, we need mining, we need so many things, petrochemicals. Because you cannot build the wind turbines and the PV panels without the petrochemicals.”

In the short term, Al-Rumayyan warned that reduced investment in exploration could create challenges in meeting the demand for affordable energy. “It started with the oil crisis,” he said, referring to the reduction of investment by international oil companies. As a result, “You have less exploration, you have less supply, and the demand is increasing because we want to change to renewables.”

He urged leaders of industry and government to search for sustainable solutions, “Not only going by a certain ideal or ideology, and not thinking about the consequences of that.”

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al-Rumayyan said, entities like the Public Investment Fund and Aramco look for solutions that are data-driven, with measurable results. “We are trying always to measure things. And to have data-driven processes to have more effective decision making because the last thing you want to do is to make a decision just based on opinions.”