Adnoc chief executive Sultan al-Jaber, who just two years ago called his fellow oil executives' view on climate change problematic and urged them to prepare for the eventual decarbonization of the global economy, today recast the problem and pronounced it to be solved.
"Energy realism is taking center stage" again and "the world is finally waking up to the fact that energy is the solution," al-Jaber said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston.
Speaking at the same venue in March 2023, the head of the UAE's national oil company said then that the oil and gas industry had a special responsibility for addressing climate change and that it needed to decarbonize its own operations and help its customers reduce their emissions as well.
But speaking today, al-Jaber said that his goal all along has been to "inject realism and pragmatism across the whole process". Al-Jaber in 2023 served as the president of the UN Cop-28 climate conference in the UAE.
In that role, "one of the biggest findings I came across very early on was the fact that the narrative [concerning the oil sector and climate change] was completely hijacked, and it was the big responsibility on my shoulder, on my team, to help correct that narrative," al-Jaber said.
The Cop-28 summit al-Jaber presided over concluded with a call to transition away from fossil fuels, rather than phase them out.
Al-Jaber said his 2023 call to action on his fellow executives has succeeded in "making them be included" and ensured "that they are not only seeing part of the solution, but in fact, the energy business [will] drive the solution."
The last two years also witnessed a change in policies in Washington, and in the message from US government officials to CERAWeek attendees. Gone is the talk of decarbonization and net zero emissions, and in its place, US energy secretary Chris Wright on Monday described climate change as a mere "side effect" of economic development.
Al-Jaber also said that Adnoc's recently launched energy investment arm XRG views investments in the US not only as a priority but as an "absolute imperative".
XRG is looking to invest in natural gas — along the entire supply chain from exploration to distribution — and also in petrochemicals, al-Jaber said. Adnoc last year took a 35pc stake in a hydrogen project at ExxonMobil's Baytown, Texas, refinery and similar investments are a possibility, he said.
"Over the next few months... you will be witnessing very serious, large, significant investments by XRG," al-Jaber said.
