Your Royal Highnesses. Your Excellencies. Ladies and Gentlemen.
As IPTC Executive Committee Chairman, I am delighted to welcome you to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to our beautiful capital city, Riyadh and to IPTC 2022!
For many of you, this is a return visit to the Kingdom. For others, it may be your first time in Saudi Arabia.
Regardless, it is a pleasure and a privilege for Saudi Aramco to host you once again, in what has become this industry’s premier event in the Eastern Hemisphere.
I would especially like to offer our deep appreciation to HRH Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al-Saud, the Crown Prince, for his patronage of our gathering – the second IPTC to be held in the Kingdom.
And to HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, Minister of Energy, for his enthusiastic participation and unlimited support.
And certainly, we thank all of you – our participants – for making this what we hope will be the best IPTC yet.
Ladies and gentlemen, when we gathered in Dhahran two years ago – at IPTC 2020 – we spoke of long-range challenges to the industry.
How could any of us have imagined the unprecedented challenge the industry – and in fact, the world – was about to face?
Over the course of a few short weeks, everything changed. The pandemic rapidly disrupted the global economy, every industry and economic sector, every home and business and virtually every aspect of our lives.
It tested our mettle, our resilience, and our ability to innovate and adapt to new norms.
It continues to test us.
But as I so often remind myself, ours is an industry born of challenge.
And as a global recovery works to gain momentum, we gather once again to look at the road ahead, and chart the next steps in our journey.
It is a future in which our reliability has never been more important, especially during a period of economic recovery.
At the same time, our commitment to sustainability must be just as apparent, just as heartfelt, and just as effective.
For each of us – for each of our companies – the journey will be different, but the commitment to innovate and excel is one we must share.
And I believe IPTC can be a powerful catalyst in the transformation of commitment to action. For this reason, you will find our program this year is robust.
And I am especially grateful to the IPTC Executive Committee and sub-committees for their commitment to make this a forum for true thought leadership.
IPTC also depends on countless hours from volunteers and staff around the world. And I would like to thank, once again, all our committee members, volunteers, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors for their support.
They have worked tirelessly to create a unique program this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is so inspiring to see a hall filled with some of the brightest minds of our industry, especially after what feels like ages apart.
We are together again during a historic moment for our industry.
We know the world needs us now, perhaps more than ever, to ensure the energy transition leaves no nation behind.
It needs our brightest talent and boldest technology to ensure continued economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental sustainability.
It is a time when much is asked of this industry, and much is expected.
And looking out across this room, I can tell you that I have never been more confident in our ability to deliver.
I welcome you all. And I wish you a wonderful IPTC 2022.