United Arab Emirates
RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will launch a $1.5 billion sustainability fund to invest in stable and inclusive energy transition technology, announced its CEO Amin Nasser.
Managed by the oil behemoth’s venture capital arm Aramco Ventures, it will be “among the biggest funds in the world for sustainability,” declared the CEO at the sixth edition of the Future Investment Initiative held in Riyadh.
“The fund will be active around the world; this is in addition to other funds we have,” said Nasser.
Aramco already has two international funds of $100 billion and $500 million and a local fund of $200 million.
Additionally, the fund has partnered with other companies to lead the oil and gas climate initiative, the CEO added.
In addition, the company is developing its blue ammonia and hydrogen business to produce up to 11 million metric tons of blue ammonia per year by 2030.
Speaking on blue hydrogen, the CEO said that the market has started to pick up in Japan and South Korea, but it will take a bit longer for Europe and will “need long-term agreements to expand in this production.”
Aramco is also exploring opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the entire value chain of its products and aims to implement a range of initiatives t which carbon dioxide emissions are reduced, reused, recycled and removed.
Nasser also mentioned that the global plan toward renewables is impractical and realistic; it is abandoning the investments in oil to shift toward renewables.
He urged the need to work on renewable energy and work on it simultaneously with the decarbonization of traditional sources.
“We need to decarbonize existing resources in parallel with our support for alternatives,” he added.
