A Saudi delegation led by Prince Turki bin Saud bin Muhammad Al-Saud, Deputy Supervisor of the Space Research Institute at the King Abdulaziz City for Sciences and Technology (KACST), is attending a symposium in Paris on the future of nuclear energy in the 21st century. Addressing the symposium, Prince Turki urged the European countries to remove obstacles against the marketing of oil, and pointed out that Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves, the largest in the world, are expected to increase. Petroleum, he said, would continue to be an important source of energy, and the oil market needs to be free and in harmony with the forces of demand and supply. Saudi Arabia therefore opposes the discrimination that exists against petroleum by certain consuming countries through the imposition of high taxes.

Prince Turki went on to elaborate that the Kingdom opposes extending financial assistance to energy sources such as coal or nuclear energy while high taxes are imposed on petroleum. Saudi Arabia, he affirmed, has raised its productive capacity, and is participating in the process of oil refining, in addition to building huge oil tankers. Billions of dollars have been invested in the petroleum industry globally in order to render petroleum products harmless to the environment; coal, on the other hand pollutes the environment, and nuclear energy is fraught with danger.

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