STORY: OPEC secretary general eyes broad cooperation with China in energy transition
DATELINE: July 6, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:03
LOCATION: Vienna
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE (English): HAITHAM AL GHAIS, OPEC Secretary General
2. various of ports in China
3. various of the ongoing 8th OPEC Int'l Seminar
4. various of clean energy sectors of China

STORYLINE:

The secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that he is very optimistic about China's economic recovery, and he sees broader cooperation with China in energy transition, technology and other areas.

SOUNDBITE (English): HAITHAM AL GHAIS, OPEC Secretary General
"China is a stable, reliable outlet for oil production, oil consumption actually, with increasing imports year-on-year. Most of our member countries in OPEC have excellent relationships with China, including my own country Kuwait.

For oil demand growth, our forecasts are showing global oil demand growth this year, compared to last year, increasing by 2.3 million barrels per day. Most of that will be coming from non-OECD, Asia, China being one of the major components of that growth.

We are very optimistic on the Chinese recovery.

There are many partnerships between many of our OPEC member countries with the Chinese national oil companies. And this is a huge sign of future collaboration that is there to grow between China and OPEC.

Investments are there, plans for investments also by Chinese companies, our member countries. So there is a broad scope for cooperation. This is all some of the things that we discussed in terms of broadening the strategic collaboration between the Chinese government and OPEC in terms of the energy.

We, actually also all OPEC member countries, we embrace the energy transition. However, we believe that the energy transition has to be well-planned, inclusive, just and fair.

We have discussed in China broad ways of cooperating with Chinese technology providers, we believe that the oil industry still has a lot of opportunities to provide much more to the global picture in terms of reaching carbon neutrality and reducing emissions. The issue has to be clear that we believe it is we all about maximizing energy, not minimizing energy, but at the same time minimizing the emissions. And this is where I think Chinese technology can play a major role, and this was part of our discussions there in China."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Vienna.
(XHTV)