Saudi Arabia, World's
Leading Oil Producer, to go "Green" at Home? Are They losing grip on the Oil market ?
Renewable energy, currently a Republican object of
derision and attack on the Obama administration in next
month’s U.S. presidential election, may have found a most
unlikely ally.
Saudi Arabia.
In an exclusive, Britain’s “Guardian” newspaper is reporting
that Saudi Arabian Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, told an
audience at the Global Economic Symposium in Brazil that he
hoped that Saudi Arabia’s domestic energy needs might be met
entirely by low-carbon energy renewable sources within his
“lifetime,” adding that Saudi Arabia wants to use its vast
reserves of hydrocarbons to produce other goods rather than
use them solely for power generation. Bin Turki told a
startled audience, "Oil is more precious for us underground
than as a fuel source. If we can get to the point where we can
replace fossil fuels and use oil to produce other products
that are useful, that would be very good for the world. I wish
that may be in my lifetime” before adding, “but I don't think
it will be."
And how influential is the 67 year-old bin Turki? The UN in
its Rio agenda lists him as “His Royal Highness Prince Turki
Bin Nasser Bin ABDULAZIZ, Minister and Director General of the
Meteorology and Environmental Protection Agency of Saudi
Arabia.” Consider his biography - bin Turki is one of the
founders of the King Faisal Foundation and serves as Chairman
of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.
From 1977 to 2001, bin Turki was the Director General of Al
Mukhabarat Al A'amah, Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, and
subsequently served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and
the United States.
For Americans, the most controversial part of bin Turki’s
biography is the fact that bin Turki as Director General of Al
Mukhabarat Al A'amah Saudi intelligence met al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden. Along with Central Intelligence Agency
operatives, bin Turki met bin Laden several times during the
1980s in efforts to support him in Afghanistan against the
Soviets. The support came after Saudi intelligence joined
Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence service and the CIA in
funding the mujahideen. Bin Turki met bin Laden a total of
five times, the last time in early 1990.
Saudi Arabia's current energy of fossil fuels is roughly
two-thirds coming from oil and the remainder from natural gas.
According to the US government's Energy Information
Administration, “Saudi Arabia has approximately one-fifth of
the world's proven oil reserves, and is the largest oil
producer and exporter of total petroleum liquids in the world…
and maintains the world’s largest oil production capacity.”
Saudi Arabia now produces close to 12 million barrels of oil a
day, representing more than 12 percent of world crude
production.
Surprisingly, bin Turki’s comments were largely overlooked by
the world’s media.
Bin Turki’s observations have to be viewed in a number of
contexts.
First, while renewable energy currently costs significantly
more per kilowatt hour than fossil fuel generation, countries
with deep fiscal reserves are exploring it, most notably
Germany, which in in the wake of Japan’s 11 March 2011
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) disaster saw
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announce that Germany would
close all of its 19 NPPs between 2015 and 2022. It was an
audacious move, as Germany’s NPPs produced about 28 percent of
the country's electricity.
And Saudi Arabia is certainly blessed with enough sunshine to
support a burgeoning solar power industry.
But, at the end of the day, bin Turki’s comments can be seen
as representing a current of thought amongst the Saudi Arabian
ruling family both to preserve its oil reserves while turning
them into value-added products in the form of fertilizer,
plastics and polymers.
Which raises an interesting question – as the West is as
addicted to oil as some addicts are to crack, then why is one
of the world’s major purveyors of hydrocarbons moving away
from indigenous dependency while Western nations, most notably
the U.S., are not? Renewable energy has become an increasingly
contentious element in the upcoming presidential election,
with Republican nominee Mitt Romney attacking the Obama
administration’s green energy initiatives even as it proposes
to resolve U.S. energy imports by reaching out to Canada and
Mexico in a “greater North American energy partnership.”
Saudi Arabia is currently the second U.S. provider of oil
imports, sending roughly 1.465 thousand barrels per day to
U.S. shores, according to the Energy Information
Administration.
When your second-largest dealer – err, sorry, “supplier,”
decides to “kick the habit,” isn’t it about time to consider
alternatives?
Sunday, November 4, 2012
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