His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, His Majesty’s Representative for Humanitarian Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of The Oil and Gas Holding Company B.S.C. (closed) (nogaholding) addressed the world’s energy leaders in a keynote speech at CERAWeek 2023 by S&P Global where he spoke about the Kingdom of Bahrain’s energy transition and the future of global energy.

During the plenary session, titled “Accelerating the Energy Transition”, His Highness shared his outlook for the industry and set out the Kingdom of Bahrain’s efforts to directly invest in and accelerate the energy sector’s transition. The ambitious plans outlined by His Highness align with the vision of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to secure the Kingdom of Bahrain’s energy needs for decades to come and achieve the nation’s COP26 and Net-Zero targets.

To achieve these targets His Highness highlighted the importance of implementing changes that ensure that guiding principles of sustainability, affordability, and security of supply are upheld, in line with the Kingdom of Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030.

His Highness recognized challenges facing the Kingdom of Bahrain and other global nations, saying: “We are facing a new reality as domestic gas resources become increasingly costly and challenging to extract. We believe there is still significant potential in our oil and gas sector. We are working hard to de-risk some of these opportunities, including offshore resources, through a comprehensive 3-D seismic program planned for next year. We also recognize the need to transition our energy supply, be it to meet our climate-action targets or to ensure our nation’s energy security.”

The Kingdom of Bahrain will be a leading nation in the Arab Gulf region to generate a significant portion of its electricity from renewable sources in the future. His Highness explained: “The targets we have set require us to embark on a complex and sophisticated journey of decarbonization through a combination of levers, such as optimizing demand, having a flexible power mix, and carbon capture and storage.

“In order to meet our ambitious net-zero targets, we are accelerating our energy transition efforts. nogaholding is committed to working with the right partners across the public and private sectors to expedite our adoption of new technologies and infrastructure. We are confident that our efforts will inspire other countries to follow our lead.”

The Kingdom of Bahrain plans to significantly increase domestic energy efficiency through new infrastructure requirements at both the consumer and commercial levels, including District Cooling for new developments.

The Kingdom of Bahrain is also in the final stages of the Bapco Modernization Program. Once completed in 2024, the refinery will be one of the most efficient, complex, and modern refineries in the region.