Days before the start of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt next week, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have declared that oil continues to be a key component of the global energy supply. Both nations said on Monday that the world needed to produce more oil.

The neighbouring Gulf nations are expanding their production capacity, according to the energy minister of Saudi Arabia, while a senior UAE official predicted that by 2050, the world’s expanding population would require 30% more energy.

Speaking at the ADIPEC oil conference in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, “We and the UAE are increasing our production capacity. We and the UAE are increasing our refining.”

“We and the UAE are going to be the exemplary producer: hydrocarbon producer, but also achieve all the sustainability goals,” he added.

By 2050, there will be 9.7 billion people on the planet, according to Sultan Al-Jaber, the UAE’s special envoy on climate change and manager of the state-owned oil giant ADNOC. He added that means energy production must increase.

He said: “If we zero out hydrocarbon investment, due to natural decline, we would lose five million barrels per day of oil each year from current supplies.”

“This would make the shocks we have experienced this year feel like a minor tremor. If this year has taught us anything, it taught us that energy security is the foundation of all progress.”

“The world needs all the solutions it can get. It is not oil and gas, or solar, not wind or nuclear, or hydrogen… it is all of the above,” he added.