Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and France have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a framework for collaboration in the energy sector.
Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman met with Catherine Colonna, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Riyadh, and discussed prospects of cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and future opportunities in various energy fields, including renewable energy, clean hydrogen, and electricity interconnection.
The MoU encourages cooperation between the two countries in the fields of electricity, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, smart grids, oil and gas and their derivatives, refining, petrochemicals, and the distribution and marketing sectors.
This will further the collaboration in technologies, with an aim to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in hard-to-abate sectors, and the production of hydrogen, as well as other technological innovations.
The MoU also promotes cooperation in digital transformation, localization of materials, products and services in the energy supply chain, collaboration between companies in the energy sector, joint research in universities, research centers and other forums, as well as building human capacity through training and exchanging of experience in the energy sector.
Later, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, met the French foreign minister.
During the meeting, the strong relationships between the two friendly countries, and ways of enhancing and developing them in various fields were reviewed, in addition to discussing aspects of intensifying joint coordination regarding several regional and international issues of common concern to the two countries.