management products and techniques, and for addressing the wider issue of environmental protection. Transportation is the most energy-intensive petroleum application, and the eventual economic recovery and phenomena such as the coming population boom will mean more people on the move. In light of this increasing demand and our commitment to continually enhancing sustainability, Saudi Aramco is making strides in desulfurizing whole crude oil products. The company is also developing cleaner-burning fuels, including new formulations consistent with next-generation, super-efficient engine technologies. Cooperative efforts are another part of the Kingdom's response to climate change. Last fall, Saudi Arabia, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom formed a cooperative to incentivize carbon capture and storage financing. This group seeks CCS project approval in the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol so that investors in projects cutting greenhouse gas emissions in developing nations receive carbon credits to offset emissions elsewhere. This step will create a global commercial market for technologies to trap greenhouse gases from industrial processes. Saudi Arabia also supports carbon capture and sequestration as a means of enhancing oil recovery, and is active in the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. As I have noted, the position of Saudi Arabia is that all energy sources will have a role to play in meeting future demand as the world's population and its energy use balloon. Whether we are considering solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal or biofuel energies, we must ask if these technologies are now, quote, “credible and sufficient alternatives to fossil fuel energies,” unquote. If the answer is “not yet,” we must then ask when they can become contenders. If we apply the sustainability criteria of accessibility, availability and public acceptability to new and alternative energies, we find that many still face significant cost, performance, reliability and infrastructure hurdles on the path to viability. Certainly, these obstacles are of concern to advanced industrialized economies and their populations. They take on a special urgency, however, when we explore the third constraint being examined at Energy Pact – the development needs of the world population. --More
