Plans afoot

Majid Al-Moneef, chairman of the board of the Saudi Association for Energy Economics, who also took part in the opening plenary session, announced that plans were afoot for an annual regional energy economics conference.

"We had one exploratory meeting in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, but this will be hopefully institutionalized in the region, so the MENA energy economics conference will join the North American conference, the European economics conference and the Asian conference."

Jean-Michel Glachant, president of the International Association for Energy Economics, said he was glad to be meeting face-toface for the event and welcomed the attendees to Saudi Arabia.

Late on Saturday Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's minister of energy, said his country is moving to become a major exporter of green electricity to the world amid global risks to energy security and access.

Speaking at the inauguration of the IAEE event in conversation with Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman of S&P Global, the prince warned that sanctions against Russia could result in a "lack of energy supplies when needed".