With the world facing its first truly global energy crisis, UAE and Saudi Arabia’s energy ministers have called for ramping up investments in the oil and gas industry.

At the ongoing Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, Khaldoon Khalifa Al-Mubarak, managing director and Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, said, “A lot of the challenges we are facing today in energy supply are caused by lack of investment.” He added that the inability of the financiers, investment institutions, and energy companies to invest in critical supply chains has stopped elevating a big part of the problem.

In an effort to hasten the energy transition, the so-called cancel culture reduced investments in the oil and gas industry resulting in problems related to energy supply. “Three years ago, in this country, if you were at this conference, the word hydrocarbon was just, you know, evil,” Al-Mubarak added. 

The three-day forum, also known as the “Davos in the Desert”, is being held under the theme of ‘Investing in Humanity: Enabling a New Global Order’ this year. 

Industry leaders, CEOs, policymakers, young leaders, and investors have gathered in Riyadh to discuss the role of businesses and investment in the future of technology, healthcare, food security, the environment, geopolitics, cybersecurity, sports, and much more.

Saudi, US spat over oil supplies

At the same conference, when asked about the spat over oil supplies with the United States, KSA’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said that the kingdom has decided to be the “more mature guys and let the dice fall.”

This month, the Saudi-led OPEC+ oil producer group’s decision to lower its oil output targets sparked a verbal spat between Washington and Riyadh. 

The US President Biden’s administration’s stance on the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen, as well as Riyadh’s expanding links with China and Russia, dented the relationship between the two longtime allies.