‘Realistic’ green policies good for the U.S., Aramco CEO says, with Trump to return to White House

“Realistic” green transition standards will benefit the U.S. energy industry, the CEO of the world’s largest oil producer said Tuesday, as the White House prepares to welcome President-elect Donald Trump in January.

Asked to comment on the possibility of a U.S. administration that views hydrocarbons more favorably, Saudi state-controlled Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said, “I think you know, policy makers definitely will help with their policies and standards … the energy to expand. That’s why, you know, I think it’s always good for the industry in the U.S. to have more realistic standards for them to achieve their goals.”

He was speaking at a panel moderated by CNBC’s Dan Murphy during the Saudi Green Initiative Forum in Riyadh.

Aramco — aligned with the broader Saudi ministry and with several of Riyadh’s allies in the OPEC+ oil producers’ coalition — has repeatedly advocated an approach to the global energy transition that still utilizes fossil fuels amid the growth of renewables, in a bid to avoid supply shortages. Critics have meanwhile questioned Riyadh’s commitment to the fight against global warming.

Aramco itself aims to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its assets by 2050 and paused long-touted plans to increase its maximum oil production capacity earlier this year. Scope 1 and 2 emissions cover direct and indirect emissions from sources that a company owns and controls or from its purchases and uses.

“I think the unrealistic views you know, when you look at the transition and policy makers, you know, always they would like to achieve a speedy transition, they put [out] certain mandates,” Nasser said Tuesday. “But mandates or policies will not take care of the economics.”

Questions linger whether hydrogen, a nascent source of renewable energy, is economically viable for mass consumption — although production costs are projected to decline within years. Trump has meanwhile previously denounced hydrogen-fueled vehicles, claiming they “tend to blow up.”

The U.S. president-elect’s broader climate policies are now in focus, with activists dismayed by the possibility that the Republican politician will once more withdraw Washington from the 2015 Paris Agreement — a critical framework that targets reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. This would mark a U-turn of the pro-climate action administration of outgoing President Joe Biden, whose legacy bill — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — support green projects.

Speaking to CNBC last month, current U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that a potential Trump decision to undo these initiatives would impact jobs in areas governed by the Republican Party and amount to “political malpractice.”

“I think in the U.S., they will do what’s right for them to expand and accelerate their industry,” Nasser said Tuesday of Washington’s transition plans.

Trump put fossil fuels at the top of his campaign agenda, pledging to “end Biden’s delays in federal drilling permits and leases that are needed to unleash American oil and natural gas production.” In mid-November, the president-elect picked oil and gas industry veteran Chris Wright, a stalwart defender of fossil fuels, to lead the Department of Energy.

U.S. oil production has bolstered throughout Biden’s presidency, hitting a U.S. and global record of 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in March.