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ENGIE: We Are Working with Saudi Arabia to Transition to Carbon-Neutral Economy

ENGIE CEO Catherine MacGregor (Asharq Al-Awsat)
ENGIE CEO Catherine MacGregor (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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ENGIE: We Are Working with Saudi Arabia to Transition to Carbon-Neutral Economy

ENGIE CEO Catherine MacGregor (Asharq Al-Awsat)
ENGIE CEO Catherine MacGregor (Asharq Al-Awsat)

ENGIE CEO Catherine MacGregor affirmed that her company’s work in Saudi Arabia aligns with the Kingdom’s national transformation plan, Vision 2030, and its focus on accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.

MacGregor pointed out that ENGIE, since the start of its business in Saudi Arabia more than two decades ago, has harnessed its expertise in the field of providing energy services solutions with low carbon emissions.

ENGIE has cooperated with Saudi authorities to develop and implement a range of energy projects that operate on gas, renewable energy, production, storage, distribution, green hydrogen, seawater desalination and district cooling. The company has also helped manage high-value-added facilities.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) forum, which recently concluded its activities in Riyadh, MacGregor emphasized ENGIE’s commitment to Saudi Arabia.

This is demonstrated through ENGIE working closely with its partners to provide new job opportunities in the short term and promote long-term development in the Kingdom.

As part of its commitment to building a more sustainable and prosperous future for the Saudi people, the company is constantly looking to cooperate with the leadership in the Kingdom to achieve greater successes.

- Company Strategy

“Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the world has witnessed unprecedented developments and fundamental changes in the field of energy,” noted MacGregor when talking about ENGIE’s strategy for the upcoming period.

“Therefore, ENGIE should play an active role in the development and innovation of future energy systems, which ensure the protection of the supply chain, the containment of energy costs and the acceleration of the transition to a carbon-neutral economy in the near future,” she added.

She pointed out that ENGIE’s active role is in line with the company strategy announced 18 months ago.

MacGregor highlighted that ENGIE, in the grand transformation journey, focused its business and strategic priorities on accelerating the energy transformation process. It also set ambitious plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2045.

“On the path towards achieving these goals, ENGIE will focus on enhancing and increasing the production of renewable energy from 36 GW currently to 80 GW in 2030,” MacGregor affirmed.

“Moreover, ENGIE continues to work on developing the field of energy solutions by providing support to its customers in their journey towards decarbonization,” she added.

- The importance of the Middle East

“ENGIE’s presence in the Middle East dates to nearly three decades ago. It has a total capacity to generate 30 GW of energy, in addition to 8 plants using reverse osmosis technology to provide the water needs of 10.6 million people daily,” noted MacGregor.

“ENGIE works with its partners in the Middle East to support countries, cities and companies by designing and developing innovative and energy-saving solutions,” she added.

“Green hydrogen is one of ENGIE's focuses and the primary tool for accelerating the transition to clean energy.”

ENGIE and Masdar had signed a strategic alliance agreement to explore the co-development of a UAE-based green hydrogen hub. The two companies are looking to develop projects with a capacity of at least 2 GW by 2030, with a total investment in the region of $5 billion.

“The company, alongside Masdar, signed an agreement with Fertiglobe this year to participate in the development of a green hydrogen production plant in the UAE, which is expected to be commercially operational in 2025, with a production capacity of 200 MW,” reminded MacGregor.

Fertiglobe are already part of a consortium developing a new build, million-ton-per-year blue ammonia plant in UAE’s al-Ruwais.

- Russian Gas Alternatives

Talking about alternatives to Russian gas and how to balance cost and demand, MacGregor said: “In 2021, Russia accounted for about 20% of the group’s gas sales and consumption in the world, but this number has fallen to nearly zero now.”

“ENGIE has made unremitting efforts over the past months to diversify its gas supply sources, and was able to obtain additional capacity from Norway or the US, taking advantage of the efficient infrastructure in Europe in general, and France in particular, to import liquefied natural gas.”

MacGregor noted the need for addressing global price hikes triggered by current crises in the short term.

“Economic activity in Asia, especially in China, has not fully recovered from the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic yet, so the world will witness a significant increase in demand when the situation improves.”

“This will lead to a change in balance. Urgency will appear at the global level to rethink supply chains and the importance of diversifying them,” explained MacGregor.

- New Energy Sector

MacGregor confirmed that the current crisis, which followed the coronavirus pandemic, has exposed the weaknesses of the incumbent system. It also shed light on the importance of energy, the need for affordable prices, and a necessity for reducing the carbon footprint.

“There is a need to use this crisis to accelerate the transition to clean energy. I also believe that we have an individual and collective responsibility to confront confusion in the energy system and global warming, and to enhance consumer behavior.”

“I am confident ENGIE's position as a global leader in the energy transition is what motivates our employees around the world,” said MacGregor about the future of her company in light of the different challenges facing the world economy.

“After refocusing on our core business, we will leverage all our resources to achieve the ambitious growth targets that have been set,” she affirmed.

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.