Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister has announced that his country is aiming to produce 10% of its power from renewable energy sources by 2023, and seeks to complete 30 solar and wind energy projects with a total of 9.5 gigawatts of renewable energy.
It’s long been a mystery what the real-world situation is with Saudi Aramco’s oil reserves, as the state-owned firm has been reporting the same 261 billion barrels reserve figure for the last 30 years or — with no changes, despite pumping out large quantities of oil every year.
Middle East and North Africa remains a hotbed of solar power development with more than 5,700 megawatts of capacity under development.
Over the next few days the world’s largest oil producer and exporter — Saudi Arabia — will float tenders to set up large-scale wind and solar power projects.
In January, one month ahead of time, we got the scoop on Tesla entering the UAE this month. We also heard that the vice ruler of Dubai has a Tesla Supercharger at his home to charge up his Model S. However, with the official announcement about Tesla’s entry into the UAE, we get even more eye-popping news.
At the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on 12-13 January, oil executives, Middle Eastern energy ministers and experts in the geopolitics of energy came together to discuss the geopolitical implications of “the energy transformation”.
The world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, is apparently mulling over as much as $5 billion in renewable energy investments as part of plans to diversify from crude oil production, according to people with knowledge on the matter.
Osama bin Laden must be laughing in his grave, as the saying goes.
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Khalid A. Al-Falih, who is also chairman of Saudi Aramco, the world’s “most valuable” company, was interviewed in Abu Dhabi for Global Action Day last week. I happened to be in attendance and captured Al-Falih making some “interesting” comments.
In the world of oil, Saudi Arabia is the tail that wags the dog. For several years, it has stubbornly refused to cut oil production in the face of falling oil prices in order to maintain its dominant share of the oil market. It is also part of a strategy to drive tar sands and fracking producers out of business. Those non-traditional sources of oil are far more costly than pumping from reserves under the Arabian desert.
