Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DHAHRAN — Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia will become a country that exploits all global energy resources. The minister said this in his speech at the International Petroleum Technology Conference in Dhahran on Monday.

Prince Abdulaziz emphasized that achieving energy security is everyone’s responsibility, and everyone must innovate when it comes to achieving energy security. “Our mission in OPEC is to be attentive to any movements in the market, and to be prepared to increase or decrease output at any time, whatever the requirements of the market,” he said while highlighting that the demand for oil constantly exceeds some expectations.

The minister said that the Kingdom has a lot of surplus energy to produce oil. “I think we postponed this investment because we are simply witnessing a transformation. Saudi Aramco has other investments to make, including investments in oil, gas, petrochemicals and renewable energy,” he added.

​It is noteworthy that the ministry of energy on Jan. 30 ordered state oil company Saudi Aramco to halt its oil expansion plan and to target a maximum sustained production capacity of 12 million barrels per day (bpd), one million bpd below a target announced in 2020.

The last meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee to monitor production of OPEC + decided to keep the oil production policy unchanged. It will decide in April whether to extend or not the voluntary oil production cuts that are in effect in the first quarter.

The Committee also emphasized that it will continue to evaluate the market situation accurately. OPEC and its allies, including Russia, known as the OPEC+, are committed to production cuts amounting to 2.2 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2024 and that is In line with their previous announcement made in November 2023.