RIYADH — Saudi Arabia intends to develop new methods for oil and gas exploitation in its bid to boost demand, Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman said on Monday. Addressing the ceremony to launch the ministry's new brand identity, the minister said that this is part of the important programs for the energy system that aim to sustain the demand for hydrocarbons and seek to replace petroleum liquids by solar energy. Prince Abdulaziz said that Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman is keen on following up the program, as it will play a significant role in raising demand for these materials. Its outputs also enhance the national economy's benefit from the value added resulting from achieving the maximum production of these materials, he explained. According to the minister, restructuring the electricity sector will have positive results at all levels. It will enable the sector to have renovation and construction in a way making it capable to respond to future programs, and the program of replacing petroleum liquids with solar energy and gas. He emphasized that the program is one of the largest and most important programs that will be implemented because of its added value to the national economy and the financial capabilities it will provide that were wasted earlier. "The energy system has made a great effort over the past year to restore stability to the petroleum markets," he said while praising the key role of the Crown Prince, the chairman of the Supreme Committee for Hydrocarbon Affairs, in direct follow-up and negotiation in many critical situations, so as to enable the ministry to implement this main demand, and without it, the public finances will be affected and thus will negatively affect the state's initiatives and programs. The minister announced that all the ministry's programs are now linked to the participation and contribution of government and private agencies, to enable the ministry to implement these programs that will have a positive developmental impact in its comprehensive sense. "As Saudis, we do not fear the challenge, but rather accept it, and we will be among the initiators of finding solutions," he said adding that the National Program for the Circular Carbon Economy is empowered to prolong the use of hydrocarbons.
