Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia and Iraq have agreed to take all necessary measures to achieve balance and stability in the global oil market.

Saudi Energy Ministry Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Oil Minister Eng. Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad held a meeting in Riyadh on Thursday.

The two sides reviewed developments in global oil markets, according to a joint statement issued after the Iraqi official’s visit to Riyadh.

“They stressed the importance of continuing collective action within the framework of the OPEC+ agreement, and the adherence of their countries to the recent decision made by OPEC+ that extends to the end of 2023, which has the endorsement of all member states,” the statement said.

The two sides discussed matters of common interest in the fields of energy and agreed to carry out important projects in gas, petrochemicals, electricity and renewables, as well as to enhance communication between both sides to explore further shared opportunities in these fields to forge tangible partnerships in ways to realize the directives of the leaderships of the two countries and the ambitions of their peoples.

Both sides commended the progress achieved in the Saudi-Iraqi power grid interconnection project, stressing the importance of accelerating its execution and maximizing future interconnection capacity to realize the aspirations of the two countries in international power grid interconnection and electricity export.

The two sides also stressed the importance of promoting Saudi-Iraqi cooperation on electricity and renewable energy, including the operation and maintenance of power grids and plants and cooperation on developing renewable energy plants.

They also agreed to promote cooperation between the two countries on clean technologies to manage hydrocarbon emissions, within the initiatives stemming from the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI), based on the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) framework. These initiatives include establishing a knowledge hub and a regional carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) hub for managing and reducing emissions to address climate change.

The two sides stressed the importance of exchanging expertise in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing methane emissions and gas flaring and benefiting from the Kingdom’s experience in the Liquid Fuel Displacement Program.