Pointing to the still paltry share of renewable energy in global supply, the head of Saudi Aramco described the current energy transition strategy as a misguided failure.
“In the real world, the current transition strategy is visibly failing on most fronts,” Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston.
Fossil fuels accounted for 82% of global consumption last year.
“This is hardly the future picture some have been painting,” Nasser said.
“All this strengthens the view that peak oil and gas is unlikely for some time to come, let alone 2030,” added Nasser, alluding to a medium-term target that has been seen as a potential phaseout date for crude.
Joining Nasser in speaking skeptically of an imminent energy revolution was ExxonMobil Chief Executive Darren Woods, who said “we’re not on the path” to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
“One of the challenges here is that while society wants to see emissions reduced, nobody wants to pay for it,” Woods said.
Nasser called for policies more in tune with the “real world.”
Nasser said the world should “abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them adequately reflecting realistic demand assumptions.”