NOCs must straddle two worlds
Oil producers have to untangle the increasingly complicated relationship with their natural resources
Oil executives at Houston’s CERAWeek conference in March were patting themselves on the backs for excellent financial results and their mutual agreement that producing more fossil fuels is what the world needs. “We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas, and instead invest in them adequately,” said the CEO of Saudi NOC Aramco, Amin Nasser. Around the same time, UN agency the World Meteorological Organization issued a report stating that: “Climate change indicators reached record levels in 2023.” In fact, these levels were far higher than what models predicted, making Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, admit that: “Climate
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The December 2025/January 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
16 December 2025
Abdullah Aljarboua serves as a senior fellow in the energy macro & microeconomics programme at KAPSARC. His work spans macroeconomics, energy-economic modelling, large-scale optimisation and advanced computational techniques for modelling complex energy policy dynamics. Here he speaks with Petroleum Economist about the Gulf region’s role in shaping the energy landscape over the coming decades
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The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh in April 2026 brings together global leaders, scientists, policymakers and innovators at a pivotal moment in the world’s energy evolution.
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As contradictory as it might seem, US oil output has continued to grow over the last several years, even as drilling in the shale plays has maintained a slow decline. This improbable dichotomy is a testimony to the industry’s technological prowess







