Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, Mr Abdallah S. Jum’ah was the speaker at a Royal Academy of Engineering lecture and dinner on 17th June, which set out to discuss the issue of technology being the key to the sustainability of future energy generation.
In his address, Mr Jum’ah expressed his belief that fossil fuels will never be replaced by renewable energy, as there is still a plentiful supply of oil available for future generations to use; some of this however would be from unconventional sources such as tar sands, such as those in Canada. He argued that renewable energy sources used today, such as wind, solar and geothermal energy, contribute less than 1% to the energy we use, going on to say that he believed without considerable investment such as government subsidies to enable companies to improve efficiency, their market share would not increase.
Jum’ah said,
“The volume of new energy supplied by renewables will still be only half of the additional energy provided by oil or by gas and only a fourth of the new energy expected to come from coal. The world’s endowment (including unconventional sources such as tar sands) is estimated at 15 trillion barrels. Even after more than a century of widespread use, we have consumed only 1 trillion barrels.”
Saudi Aramco is responsible for the production of more crude oil than any other company worldwide and manages the world’s largest proven oil reserves. They also have a large role in the gas industry and in refining.
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Tags: climate change, fossil fuels, oil, peak oil, renewable energy, tar sands