Despite attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy and transport infrastructure in recent weeks, the Kingdom’s energy resilience remains strong, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh on Monday.
“Energy resilience is beyond barrels of spare capacity, of pipelines and gigawatts of generation,” Prince Abdulaziz said, as carried by Bloomberg.
“It must also be measured by the ability to maintain, repair, reroute, substitute and recover. Above all, it must be measured by the ability to continue delivering under pressure.”
On Sunday, in his opening remarks to the ministerial session, Prince Abdulaziz said Saudi Arabia “has demonstrated its ability to ensure reliable energy supplies while continuing to invest and prepare for a range of circumstances and challenges,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The minister described Riyadh as the “capital of energy security,” stressing that the Kingdom remains committed to fulfilling its obligations and ensuring reliable energy supplies under all circumstances.
The remarks from Prince Abdulaziz come weeks after the East-West onshore pipeline, which Saudi Arabia uses to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, was attacked by drones and was forced to shut down for two weeks. The pipeline is now up and running, and the Saudi export route out of the Red Sea port of Yanbu has recovered.
Prince Abdulaziz’ remarks also come as the Iran-aligned Houthis hit the international airport in Riyadh with missiles, twice, killing a total of 14 people this weekend.
Due to the travel turmoil and restrictions, the top executives of major international oil and gas companies withdrew from the WPC Energy Congress, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The CEOs of ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies were all scheduled to attend the event, but had to alter plans after the attacks on the Saudi international airport.
“We made every effort to participate in WPC. Unfortunately, due to travel disruption, we are unable to be there in person. We greatly value our longstanding partnerships across the region,” BP said in a statement to FT.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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