Saudi Arabia has called for greater global cooperation in increasing upstream investments and expanding and upgrading refining capacity to ensure the world's energy future.
Saudi Aramco President and Chief Executive Officer Abdallah S. Jum'ah told an energy conference in Houston that oil-producing nations were likely to build more refineries because of the hurdles oil companies face in developing new plants in consuming countries.
Jum'ah's remarks came in a keynote address he delivered on Tuesday at the prestigious Oil Summit of the Cambridge Energy Research Association's Annual Conference (CERA Week 2005), under the theme "Rising to the Challenge: Securing the Energy Future."
The conference, being held Feb. 14-18, is attended by more than 1,500 top energy executives, policymakers and energy analysts from over 50 countries, according to information available.
Jum'ah also called for global cooperation to improve environmental technologies, and greater investment in petroleum-related infrastructure, such as pipelines and terminals, including managing the safe movement of oil through strategic shipping channels and sea-lanes.
"Until now, refineries have been built primarily in consuming nations, but I believe we will see a portion of this new refining capacity being located in producing countries," he said in a press statement published today.
Jum'ah said other key factors included the refineries' proximity to oil reserves and oil producers' desire to reap the added value of refined products. Saudi Arabia currently has eight refineries, with a combined crude throughput of about 2 million barrels per day.
No new refineries have been built in the United States in nearly three decades. The growth of producers' refining capacity could also attract partners, he said
Jum'ah presented an outlook for global resources and the long-term energy mix, emphasizing that petroleum will remain the bedrock of the world's energy supplies for the foreseeable future, just as it has for the past century. Jum'ah said Saudi Aramco put a high value on its partnerships in the United States, Europe and Asia, and would continue to expand its business with Asian countries.
"We also look forward to strengthening our relationships with the Chinese and Indian petroleum sectors, and to helping them meet the rapidly expanding energy needs of their home markets," he said.
Jum'ah indicated that Saudi Aramco is doing its part to ensure that oil supplies will be available when they are needed. He expected that international oil trade would increase substantially over the coming decades, contributing to an increasingly inter-connected global marketplace, and he called for pragmatic and more balanced energy policies that do not discriminate against oil in favor of competing sources of energy.
