Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi delivered a speech at the 4th OPEC International Seminar held in Vienna, Austria. Following is the full text of the speech: "I would like to thank His Excellency Abdalla Salem El-Badri, OPEC secretary general, for his kind invitation to take part in the 4th international OPEC Seminar. When we last gathered for the 3rd OPEC seminar here at the exquisite Hofburg Palace, our discussions hinged on the theme of “A New Energy Era.” Participants agreed that the world has ample oil reserves; that the industry's challenge is deliverability, not availability; and on the importance of demand security to ensure sound investment strategies for the oil industry. Price volatility was an often mentioned concern when discussing all these important subjects. Two and a half years later, price remains in the forefront, yet with even greater complexity in the face of global economic and financial turmoil not witnessed in generations. As we launch our third session of the day on upstream and downstream production capacity , I am struck by the fact that the members of this panel represent more than one third of global oil production and one sixth of refining capacity. I therefore hope that this panel would stimulate thinking towards solutions to help stabilize global oil markets, and to enable petroleum to fully serve its function as the world's preeminent energy source and enabler of progress and prosperity. In this lovely setting, the imperial palace whose history reaches back over 700 years, we realize something we tend to overlook in the hurried pace of modern life; the layering of time that is history. Around the world, our lives often occupy the here-and-now – the current moment that so demands our time and attention. In what analysts have called our “instant society,” it is easy to lose perspective on the long-range, the time-intensive. It is in such a context that we encounter one of the most persistent hurdles to understanding about the oil industry: the fact that ours is a long-term business. Petroleum itself, a substance millions of years in the making; cannot be rushed; neither can the exploration, discovery and development that take many years, if not decades in some cases, to bring into production. --More
