ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°147 - Mars/Avril 2013 - 24

FoCus

By Mathieu AL KHARFAN (MEB 05)

A change
of attitude

Mathieu AL KHARFAN is the VP of Finance for Middle-East (ME), North Africa
and Far East Australia at Proserv, a production technology and services
company for the global energy industry. He tells us about this evolution.
The ME is sitting on enormous
reserves of oil, estimated to be
about 48% of the global reserves (or 800 billion barrels!)
This obviously leads to some
great benefits to the countries
in enjoying this wealth, as oil
prices have recovered significantly since the lows of 2008
(from $30 per barrel to now
about $110). Given that most
countries in the region have
small population and therefore
export the majority of their oil
production, they are able to
convert the precious fluid every day into billions of dollars.
From indifference to awareness
Fact of the matter is most of us are not conscious
of the energy we consume daily, and many simply
don’t care. Additionally, in the ME thinking «green»
is not part of the culture (yet), and through government subsidies energy is relatively cheap.
This trend, however, seems to be on the decline,
and more countries are starting to develop Energy
strategies to manage their wealth over time, particularly as global oil consumption is expected to
grow by 23% by 2035, as developing countries
will continue to see their oil demand increase
with their population and economic growth.
Another key aspect of the need for « oil wealth
management » is driven by the number of benefits
governments in the ME have committed to their
population following the « Arab Spring » events
(jobs creations, education and healthcare), which
will mostly be funded with the money generated
from selling oil.
Let’s take the UAE as an example, which has
the 7th biggest oil reserve in the world, is the 7th
biggest oil producer and ranks in the « top 5 » glo-

- ESCP Europe Magazine N° 147 - Mars/Avril 2013

bally of worst emitters of CO2 per capita. 94% of
the oil is owned by the emirate of Abu Dhabi (AD),
leaving all other emirates with more challenges to
meet their energy demand. This particularly applies to the emirate of Dubai, which is well known
for its extravagant developments in the middle of
the desert.
Diversification of sources of energy
In 2011 Dubai introduced its own Energy strategy, where it seeks to diversify its sources of
energy and reduces energy consumption by 30%
by 2030. It is expected to generate 70% of overall
energy from natural gas, and the remainder from
a mix of nuclear, solar and clean coal. This will reduce drastically Dubai’s dependence on imported
oil (from its neighbour AD) and also tackle the
increased carbon emission usually coming handin-hand with economic growth.
Other example of the changing trend is given by
the oil-rich emirate of AD. It has been pushing hard
to change the local culture, be more environmentally friendly and be a global leader in renewable
and sustainable energy. AD has been selected to
host the global headquarter of the International
Renewable Energy Agency and will be hosting
the next World Future Energy Summit.
For enhancing sustainable energy
Our company, Proserv, has also seen this change
of attitude recently as we have had great interest
from the AD & Saudi Arabia National oil companies (almost to our surprise) when we launched a
new « Green » tool for Oil well operations, which
has a 20% saving on environmental impact.
Overall, most ME countries and particularly major
oil producers, are slowly changing their energy
strategies towards being less harmful to the environment and the culture shift is « en marche », at
whatever pace it takes.
●

Table des matières de la publication ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°147 - Mars/Avril 2013

Couverture
Zapping
Sommaire
BUSINESS
Personnalités du mois Didier CORDERO (EEMBA 96) : Donner de l’énergie
Focus
- The global energy map
- At the edge of a new age
- Le futur énergétique
- Sustainable cities
- La performance énergétique
- Offshore wind farms
- A change of attitude
- Indian challenges
Itinéraires
- Joaillerie sur mesure
- Tous les chemins mènent à l’énergie
Entretiens Agro-alimentaire
NEWS
Vie du réseau
- Fany PECHIODAT (01 BE), Fondatrice de My Little Paris
- Nominations
- Bon anniversaire !
- Les fauves de la 57
- Carnet
- Passation de relais
- Agenda
À lire
Carrière Énergie managériale : ressource vitale ?
Voyages Chutes Victoria : le premier matin du monde
CAMPUS
École Entering a new era of the energy industry
Fondation Merci pour votre soutien !
Vie étudiante
- cHeer uP ! souffle ses 10 bougies
- Nous voulons l’Europe
- Sur la ligne de départ
- Un avenir où vous allez bien tourner !
- Faire renaître le théâtre

ESCP Europe Alumni Magazine - n°147 - Mars/Avril 2013