OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2014. Saudi Aramco is committed to powering global economic development with adequate and affordable energy, as well as helping to deliver a low carbon future, president and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih stated in an address to the UN Climate Summit 2014 in New York.

Al-Falih said the company employs a multi-pronged strategy that encompasses both the production of petroleum and its consumption. Highlights of the strategy, he said, include an unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship beyond mere compliance, a focus on operational excellence all along the petroleum value chain, and notably, leveraging innovation and technology. In terms of production, over the past four decades, Saudi Aramco has reduced its CO2 footprint sixfold despite rising activity levels, and gas flaring has been reduced to well below 1 percent of annual gas production.

On the consumption side, Al-Falih said efforts in innovation and technology will reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector through the introduction of hybrid vehicles which double the average miles per gallon, as well as ongoing efforts in the efficiency of conventional internal combustion and diesel engines.

“At Saudi Aramco, one of our principal R&D objectives is to achieve ground-breaking advancements in integrated engine-fuel systems to radically improve mileage efficiency and reduce emissions.”

Working with the automotive industry, Saudi Aramco’s R&D has been further extended to prototype vehicles that capture CO2 on board, he added. A fivefold increase in R&D funding, along with the collaboration of “like-minded partners” will serve to further “these efforts, which are real and will have a lasting impact on our own economic and environmental bottom lines, with global implications.”