Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, said Tuesday evening at an oil industry conference in Houston that a push to develop more renewable fuels might jeopardize investments in conventional fuels.
al-Naimi might have a point, but I don't think that the argument should be as simplistic as he puts it. He has gone ahead and argued that the Western views will hamper their long-term investments in oil and oil infrastructure. I beg to differ.
What al-Naimi and his cronies should be looking at is providing leadership, not hiding behind sand dunes and crying wolf. What the oil industry needs to do is to use it enormous capital (both social and monetary) and show some leadership as so where the business of fuels is going. Instead of b*tching consistently about the leadership of the Western nation, al-Naimi needs to show some leadership and let us know how Saudi Arabia is going to deal with the fuel question.
The same applies to other energy companies. The developed world is drunk on oil and for it to get weaned off this fuel, the energy companies themselves are the ones who are going to have to show some leadership and use their clout to move things to a new direction. I am not expecting a start up to come and and immediately influence things. But if the big energy companies continue slacking and complaining, I will not be surprised if they really run out of business.
Article on al-Naimi.
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