On September 23, 2020, Dr Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy, spoke at Argus Petcoke Live – Virtual Conference, The Future of Fuel panel which focuses on Asia and the Middle East.
Dr Nakhle focused on the strategies of Middle Eastern National Oil Companies, which, unlike the private oil majors, are investing more in oil and gas, not less, and throughout the supply chain. Even though they are investing in some green projects, they have a clear bias towards projects that favour their hydrocarbons, such as hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
After all, they know that the global energy transition will create bigger, not smaller, demand for their low cost oil and gas reserves, at least in the early stages of the process, since oil and gas demand will not disappear overnight, and the oil majors are pressured to move away from their core business into greener portfolio. However, for the large oil and gas exporters of the Middle East to fully benefit from such an outlook, the fundamental prerequisite remains economic diversification as well as energy diversification.
Dr Nakhle was joined by Surinder Gupta, Senior Independent Consultant; Narayan Bhatra, Head – Institutional Business at Nayara Energy; and Dr Michal Meidan, Director, China Energy Program at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. David Fyfe, Chief Economist at Argus moderated the discussion.
Related Analysis
“Clean Energy and Fossil Fuels in the Middle East: A Virtuous Cycle?”, Dr Carole Nakhle, Jul 2020
“Oil in the energy transition age”, Dr Carole Nakhle, Mar 2020
“Energy Transition? Not So Fast, One Expert Says”, Lord Howell, Oct 2019
“The long ‘bridge’ of carbon capture and storage technology”, Dr Carole Nakhle, Mar 2019