Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser (third from left) joins fellow CEOs of major oil and gas companies as part of Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, OGCI, in London, on November 4, 2016.
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) has announced a $1 billion investment over the next ten years, with each of its ten member companies, including Saudi Aramco, pledging investments of $100m to develop and accelerate the commercial deployment of innovative low emissions technologies.
Speaking alongside the CEOs of the other member companies, Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said: “Today’s announcement highlights our strong and collective commitment in addressing climate change, allowing us to combine our expertise and resources in tackling one of the greatest challenges facing our industry and the world. Technology-enabled solutions are key to managing climate change, and this announcement by OGCI to collectively fund $1bn is paramount to our long-term commitment in meeting rising energy demand.”
Led by the heads of ten oil and gas companies that aim to lead the industry response to climate change, OGCI member companies – BP, CNPC, Eni, Pemex, Reliance Industries, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total – together with Saudi Aramco, represent one fifth of the world’s oil and gas production.
In a joint statement, the heads of the 10 oil and gas companies said: “The creation of OGCI Climate Investments shows our collective determination to deliver technology on a large-scale that will create a step change to help tackle the climate challenge. We are personally committed to ensuring that by working with others, our companies play a key role in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, while still providing the energy the world needs.”
OGCI Climate Investments (OGCI CI) will aim to deploy successfully-developed new technologies among member companies and beyond. It will also identify ways to cut the energy intensity of both transport and industry. Working in partnership with like-minded initiatives across all stakeholder groups and sectors, the OGCI CI believes its emission reduction impact can be multiplied across industries.
This investment represents an unprecedented level of oil and gas industry collaboration and resource-sharing in this space. This new, additional investment will complement the companies’ existing low carbon technology programs and will draw on the collective expertise and resources of the member companies.
Speaking at the KAPSARC (King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center) Energy Dialogue early this week in Riyadh, CEO Nasser underlined collaboration as an important lever in carbon management, describing the OGCI as a, “wider industry-led response to climate change”.
The investment into climate change comes as Saudi Aramco also announced acquisition of Converge, a polyol technology, from US-based Novomer, in a transaction valued at up to $100m.