Remarks by Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani at the GDA IDCE Leadership Dialogue 2025

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, friends and colleagues, good morning.

I am delighted to be speaking here today. I believe that conferences like this are where ideas become actions — and where progress can be shared and scaled. 

When we met in 2023, the world was at a crossroads. We were facing a volatile global energy landscape—navigating geopolitical tensions, recovering from pandemic aftershocks, and absorbing new pressures from supply chain constraints.

We are meeting again at a time when the global energy ecosystem is still being reshaped — not just by geopolitics, but also the accelerating pace of technology.

And yet, one thing remains clear: the world still needs more energy. Resources forecast that the global oil demand is estimated to reach all time levels this decade. The forecasted growth is primarily driven by demand for transportation fuels — especially aviation jet fuel — as global aviation traffic is expected to increase. Additional demand is expected to come from petrochemical feedstocks.

So, when I look at how far we have come since our last gathering in 2023, I see progress.

I see a clear shift in the narrative of Downstream:

From reactive to transformative—Organizations represented in this conference continue to transform refining, chemicals, and marketing into a single, agile value chain. 

And from adaptive to innovative—Refineries are becoming more modern, leveraging technologies to become more automated—delivering cost savings, value creation and environmental benefits.

This edition of IDCE also shows clear growth from 2023 in several dimensions. The number of participating countries has increased significantly, making it a truly global conference. 

In fact, today there are 53 participating countries represented here from the region and around the world, making it a truly global conference which ultimately creates a knowledge hub and opportunities for collaboration.

The technical content, exhibitor showcase, and innovation platform have also expanded to include more innovative solutions that can potentially help address current challenges faced by our industry. 

This is truly inspiring. My appreciation goes to the Gulf Downstream Association for providing a vital platform for collaboration and dialogue within our industry. And if this industry has shown anything over the decades, it is resilience. 

I am confident that we can apply that same resilience to help support our approach in finding the appropriate balance between the energy trilemma of security, affordability, and sustainability.

Downstream is central to that effort. At Aramco, we view strategic Downstream expansion as essential to diversify our portfolio, capture greater value, and ensure long-term resilience.

Our global downstream presence, supported by strategic overseas investments, is reinforcing our position as a trusted partner in refining and petrochemicals.

As we expand across the portfolio in developing arenas such as retail, fuels, and trading, we remain confident in our ability to thrive in an increasingly carbon -conscious world.

Our portfolio continues to grow, stretching from east to west, in multilateral industrial segments, creating a need for new tools that can support in optimizing our businesses beyond human capabilities. On that front, tools like AI, cloud computing, IoT, digital twins, and blockchain are supporting us to operate more efficiently, transparently, and safely.

According to research by S&P, with the help of AI, individual assets have achieved cost reductions of 10%-25%, productivity gains of 3%-8% and energy efficiency improvements of 5%-8%.

But technology is only part of the story.

Our greatest asset remains our HI, Human Intelligence—our people. And as the industry evolves, so does our global workforce. That is why at Aramco we are investing heavily in developing future leaders — equipping them with new skills and the mindset to lead in a more complex energy world. 

Spaces like IDCE remind us that the big challenges ranging from emissions reduction to digitalization cannot be solved in isolation. I believe that together, we can help contribute to a future for this industry that is reliable, resilient and sustainable. 

Thank you, and I wish everyone a successful and insightful conference.

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