growing local, regional and global significance. The Kingdom goes to great lengths to preserve and protect the environment, both through its economic and petroleum activities and through membership in and accession to the various international treaties and conventions related to the environmental protection. On the local front, the Kingdom has enacted a general law designed to protect the environment, track environmental activities within the Kingdom, propagate environmental awareness and protect public health against activities detrimental to the environment. The law has reconfirmed the importance of environmental planning in industrial, agricultural, urban and other fields, as well as the importance of heightening awareness of environmental issues, inculcating individual and mass responsibility for protecting and enhancing the environment, and encouraging volunteer efforts to help protect against pollution on land and sea. I wish to clarify that we have in place a plan which will be implemented in stages by Saudi Aramco to reduce sulfur content in the various grades of fuel used in the Kingdom, in tandem with modernizing existing refineries to minimize harmful emissions and produce fuel that is compliant with the best international specifications. At the global level, the Kingdom keeps tabs on new environmental developments at regional and international standards and actively participates in climate change meetings and negotiations, including the Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol, coupled with defending the interests of the oil-producing countries and confronting negative campaigns against oil. The Kingdom played an effective and positive role in the 15th meeting of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change which was held in Copenhagen in September 2009. In addition, the Kingdom pays close attention to bilateral cooperation, including special collaboration with certain countries in reinforcing environmental policies and technologies. For instance, the Kingdom plays a central role in the “Four Kingdoms” initiative which also includes Norway, the United Kingdom and Holland, and aims to exchange information on injecting carbon dioxide and other environmentally detrimental gases into oil reservoirs in order to both dispose of such gases and enhance oil recovery rates. Talking about the environment and its protection leads us to another topic of special importance: our focus on technologies and on research and development centers. The Kingdom aims to become a key international center in the field of energy research, cooperating with scientific research centers and specialized international universities and institutions, in addition to developing technologies for indigenous use and for transfer. Saudi Aramco established a research and development center whose functions include pioneering research, new technologies and specialized technical services. The development of technologies pertaining specifically to the Kingdom's oil industry began to bear fruit in the area of exploration technology, reserves augmentation and recovery rate enhancement. Examples of technologies that earned patents in 2008 include, but are not limited to, a real-time earth model for collaborative geosteering, and total reporting and monitoring standards for pipeline system management. Recently developed technologies also include Giga Powers, the first and only simulation system in the world capable of simulating major reservoirs with the highest degree of clarity. Yet another international record was achieved by utilizing electromagnetic logs for drawing underground liquid distribution maps. These scientific developments and applications will contribute to improving recovery rates by 50 percent overall, and by 70 percent in the Kingdom's key producing fields. --More
