Sara Akbar - The Switch Interview

- In Kuwait, the only convenience here we have is oil. We have nothing else. We don't grow our foods. We don't get our own clothes. We have no production here, except for the oil. Even water, the basic component of life, we used to import. So for people like that, you know, it's normal for us. We trade and we get our material from whoever it is and this is life. This is what it's all about. - Right. - In the U.S. especially, I think because they feel a very independent nation. It's very dependent on somebody else to give them something and they don't just hate this feel. They like to have full control over their destiny in every way that they can, including oil. So, I think a lot of that you see when most of the presidents that come to the U.S. the first thing they talk about is energy sufficiency in the U.S. "We would like to be self-sufficient and we try to..." - [Interviewer] Independent. - Independent or other... It's impossible. - [Interviewer] Yeah, I agree. - It can't be done. So, but they try to market this to the general public because, "Oh, why should we depend on those Arabs "to give us oil?" If the world was normalized, you know, you need something I have, I have something you need. - [Interviewer] It's called trade. - It's called trade and it's been there forever. - [Interviewer] It has. - And really we don't need to do much about this because we have fuel you want. I mean, if we don't sell it to you, who's going to take it? If we assume your forecasts are correct, that the demand on the fossil fuel is actually going down percentage-wise, but it is going little bit up in actual, I think for the next 30 years, we have enough resource in this part of the world to supply the world with what it needs. OK? And, yes, many of the fields once covered here long time ago, but the recovery, the recovery factors we've been using in the past are not high and there is enough technology today to include those recovery factors. Then the extraction rate has been very low as well. You know, for a country like Kuwait it's less than three percent or two percent per year that they extract of their resource. And I think it's the same for most of the countries in this region. So there is potential to supply the world. But I think, at the same time, it is huge investment requirements. There is a lot of technology that has to be applied in these fields. There is a lot of work to be done, basically, to do that. If I go by the region, our mind is completely open, because you can go get concessions on their own mostly. Relationship agreements are normal. If you go to Qatar, it's the same story. If you go to Yemen, it's the same story. The countries that are sort of closed, one of them is Saudi, and the other one is Kuwait. Because Iraq is opening up in view of the problems in Iran. In Saudi, they have taken some steps with those gas ventures. I think the only state where you have still closed system is Kuwait. And it's been political mostly. It has nothing to do with the resource. Since 1993, we have systematically, in the oil industry have been saying, "Look, to go forward into the future, "enhance the production, we need help, "and we need help from international companies "because we don't want to go on "the trial and error basis." That's what we would be going to do, you know? You got to try this technique, that technique. If it works, not this one, that costs and that damages. Eventually, they have to. They'll have to invite these companies to come and help them. And it is going to happen. It's quite unfortunate that companies like BP and Chevron left Kuwait, but, you know, the political system is still in turmoil. We haven't stabilized yet. It's like, teething problem with democracy in Kuwait. So, whenever we have all our teeth out, then, I think... - [Interviewer] Is it going in the right direction overall? - Well. - [Interviewer] Or fits and starts? - You know, I should be optimistic. I'm cautiously optimistic, I must say, because we have gone through a lot of hoops and when you do that, I think, you get better. Oil is a very, very valuable commodity. And if we can replace oil in combustion engines, then we will be doing the whole world a great favor. OK? Because it's a very valuable commodity to generate products, not burn it. What you need to do is to develop other sources for your combustion engines, your electrical generation, and for burning for fuel. Now, in this part of the world, actually, they haven't thought about this. They haven't thought about the future and this change. And the simple reason is they have abundant oil and gas in the region. And economically, it doesn't work for them to look at any other alternative source of energy. For example, I think, one of the best sources of energy in this part of the world would be the sun. We have 360 days of direct sun. So you can utilize a lot of solar energy in this part of the world. But, of course, the development and the technology is not there and we are not investing in developing the technology either. So, looking long term is not something we do in this part of the world and if you look one year ahead, then you are excellent. So planning long term is not something which is built into the systems here. - [Interviewer] So you think it's going to take a crisis. - Well, OK Scott. If you look at the amount of oil that has been discovered anywhere since the beginning of the 19th century until today, you will notice that we are actually not finding more oil. We are basically not replacing our production. And the gap is getting bigger and bigger because we are finding smaller and smaller fields all the time. - And demand grows. - And the demand is growing. So this gap is increasing all the time and that should entice people to actually do more research and spend enough money in developing alternative sources of energy. If you look at the oil companies here, they have so many women now. And I think, percentage-wise, it's more here than even the U.S. So contrarily speaking, it has not been a barrier to women joining the industry and doing just like men. But I think when it comes to leadership positions, it's still, you know, there is a barrier for them to get to the senior leadership positions in the oil and gas and every other industry as well, not just the oil and gas. I mean, in Kuwait, it's a result of the political system because we are not in Parliament. We are not in government so we have no voice. We cannot influence the decisions and that's why we have always been kept away and, you know, if you look at the total women in leadership positions you'll find it's less than five percent when they are about 35% of the total working force. - Right. - I'm not asking that because they are women just give them more. It's just equal opportunity. If they work as hard as men in their positions, if they are better, if they can generate more value, then they should be given a fair chance. That's all."