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Al-Naimi Wins Award, Urges End to Poverty

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Author: Saudi Aramco News
Released 17 July 2008

MADRID, July 09, 2008 --  In the long term, the world needs to make ending poverty its top priority, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ali I. Al-Naimi, told delegates to the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) July 1 in Madrid.

Al-Naimi received the Dewhurst Award at the event. The award celebrates scientific and technological excellence in the petroleum industry. Recipients of the award are well known throughout the industry and have demonstrated unusually high achievements over many years. He made his comments during his address to the congress.

Ali I. Al-Naimi, recipient of the WPC Dewhurst Award, speaks about the importance of oil in global development and the challenges of climate change and poverty.

Noting that the WPC and Saudi Aramco both are marking their 75th anniversaries, Al-Naimi discussed the importance oil has played in global development.

“The era of oil coincides with a period of world history different than earlier periods of the 20th century, as it was a period of unprecedented achievement in science and technology. The human mind was the source of innovations that changed the world in ways that would have been unimaginable before,” the minister said.

“The oil industry led to a renaissance in the field of transport and economy, which led to rapid improvements in living standards and personal freedom of movement,” he said.

Al-Naimi said although mankind has made much advancement, more needs to be done.

“Studies confirm that more than one billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water, and 2.4 billion live without proper sanitation. Experts say that 1.5 billion people still lack access to electricity, and about 3 billion people live on less than two dollars a day per person,” he said.

“The United Nations estimates that 80 percent of the total global financial resources devoted to health are currently spent in OECD countries, a fact that shows the scope of the problem will only become more extensive with the increasing population of the world.”

Al-Naimi noted that climate change has received considerable attention, but poverty often is ignored.

“Poverty and its negative impact on the humanitarian situation constitute a real and immediate threat for large numbers of people in developing countries,” he said.

With oil prices leading newscasts around the globe, Ali I. Al-Naimi was sought by many reporters for comments at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid. Al-Naimi told them that prices were not the result of supply shortages but rather speculation in commodities markets and currency fluctuations.

However, climate change is just one of countless problems, the impact of which is not easily visible in the developing world. The problem of climate change is often seen in the less developed world as one of the man-made problems of the developed world, and is therefore responsible for them.” He said the challenge facing industries and markets of petroleum lies in how to get rid of carbon and how to do so safely.

Al-Naimi dismissed concerns about supply shortages and said that the current price of oil had more to do with political instability, inadequate infrastructures, changes in product specifications in the global markets and the inflow of speculative funds in oil futures contracts than reserves. He said studies showed there were still trillions of barrels of oil to be harvested.

“I am confident that large quantities of oil are still undiscovered in the mature and border regions around the world. I am also confident that through the modern techniques of today the oil industry will find this oil and produce it,” he said, noting that through modern technology Saudi Aramco has increased the production capacity to 75 percent in some fields.

He said Saudi Arabia, along with other GCC states, was taking a longer view of the oil industry’s coming challenges.

“Last year, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced an initiative for protecting the environment, where the Kingdom has allocated $300 million for exploring the possibility of reducing environmental impacts of fossil fuels, an initiative that attracted global appreciation, with the states of Kuwait, U.A.E. and Qatar pouring in an additional $450 million.”

He also spoke of the investments the Kingdom is making in research and education, discussing King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and King Abdullah Center for Petroleum Research and Studies, which will begin work before the end of this year.

The minister said that for the foreseeable future, oil will remain an important component of the global energy stream.

“Increasing economic prosperity in coming decades will require the increase of production from all sources of fuel, including oil, gas and coal,” Al-Naimi said.

“No alternative currently competes with oil in terms of its ability to provide safe means of transport, and as effective and economical for the world’s population,” he added.