Current energy transition strategy ‘failing on most fronts’: Aramco’s Nasser

Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco

Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser emphasized today, March 18, the need for a new, realistic pathway for the energy transition that includes oil and gas.

In a keynote speech at CERAWeek 2024 in Houston, Texas, Nasser expected global oil demand is expected to reach an all-time high in the second half of this year.

On the energy transition’s impact on consumers, Nasser said that the current transition strategy increasingly impacts the majority, not just a tiny minority, consumers around the world are sending powerful messages that can no longer be ignored. 

“Unfortunately, the current transition strategy overlooks these broader messages from consumers. It focuses almost exclusively on replacing hydrocarbons with alternatives, more on sources than on reducing emissions,” he added.

The current transition strategy “is visibly failing on most fronts as it collides with five hard realities,” he described. 

These hard realities include the need to reset global efforts to meet climate ambitions, the inability of alternatives so far to displace hydrocarbons at scale, the costs associated with alternatives, energy requirements of the Global South, and the potential for further emissions reductions from hydrocarbons.

“We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them adequately, reflecting realistic demand assumptions. We should ramp up our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, aggressively improve efficiency, and introduce lower carbon solutions. And we should phase in new energy sources and technologies when they are genuinely ready, economically competitive, and with the right infrastructure,” Nasser added.

The current transition strategy increasingly impacts the majority, not just a tiny minority, consumers around the world are sending powerful messages that can no longer be ignored. 

“We know they want energy with lower emissions, and rightly so. But many are struggling to afford the energy they need. And they worry about ample and reliable supply, which the recent energy crisis showed is not guaranteed,” Nasser explained.

Despite the world investing more than $9.5 trillion on energy transition over the past two decades, alternatives have been unable to displace hydrocarbons at scale… Global oil demand is expected to reach an all-time high in the second half of this year. Likewise, gas remains a mainstay of global energy, growing by about almost 70% since the start of the century… All this strengthens the view that peak oil and gas is unlikely for some time to come.