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