Natural gas will continue to play a key role as a transition fuel as the world moves towards cleaner energy such as renewables, says Matthieu Bouyer, managing director, TotalEnergies EP Qatar and TotalEnergies country chair in Qatar.
“As the world population will grow sharply in the coming decades, the energy demand will increase; people willing to increase their standard of living. At TotalEnergies our goal is clear: More energy and less emission. Our ambition is to be ‘Net Zero by 2050’ together with society”, Bouyer said and noted “to achieve this, we base our strategy on two growth pillars in particular – LNG and renewables.”


Matthieu Bouyer, managing director, TotalEnergies EP Qatar and TotalEnergies country chair in Qatar. Natural gas will continue to play a key role as a transition fuel as the world moves towards cleaner energy such as renewables, says Bouyer.


“For five years, we have started to change our mix of production from being oil and gas, to embrace a wider energy mix that includes other energies including renewables; that’s why we changed our name from Total to TotalEnergies in May this year, as a symbol of this transformation.”
“We are one of the top leading players in LNG and our ambition is to become one of the world’s top five renewable energy companies by 2030 with a portfolio of 100GW gross capacity. The next decade will be the one of our transformation and we will place sustainability at the heart of our strategy”
In an exclusive interview with Gulf Times, Bouyer said, “TotalEnergies plans to accelerate its investments in renewables and electricity, bringing them to $3bn per year over 2021-25."
Bouyer stressed that hydrocarbons will continue to generate the necessary cash flow required to fund the transition.
“Energy transition cannot happen overnight. We need to realise that a massive amount of money is required in order to transition to cleaner fuels. You need to invest money to develop renewables and then wait for a certain number of years before generating profit. The oil and gas business will remain a key pillar of TotalEnergies’ strategy for many years and it will endorse the strategic role of fuelling the energy transition of the company,” Bouyer noted.
Bouyer sees a bright future for liquefied natural gas and Qatar’s LNG industry in particular.
“Market analysts believe LNG holds significant growth prospects in the long run. Natural gas stands out as a transition fuel, to replace coal, thereby reducing emissions, especially in power and industry.”
On oil, he said that according to TotalEnergies analysis, its global demand would start declining at turn of the decade. However, since oil fields are naturally declining every year by 3%-4%, large investments will still be required to meet the demand.
According to TotalEnergies ‘2021 Strategy & Outlook’, the Company will increase its energy production by 30% from now to 2030, with growth coming half from electricity, essentially from renewables, and half from LNG. Its sales mix will evolve to 30% oil, 50% gas, 15% electricity and 5% biomass and hydrogen by 2030.
Petroleum product sales will decrease by at least 30% over the period of 2020-30.
In renewables, TotalEnergies is accompanying QP and Qatar’s ambition for a more diversified energy mix. TotalEnergies is partnering alongside Marubeni and Siraj Energy, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and QEWC (Qatar Electricity and Water Company) to develop Al Kharsaa, the largest solar project in Qatar, with 800MW, which should start early 2022.
Once fully started, it will represent around 10% of electricity peak demand of the country.
On the TotalEnergies Research Center-Qatar at Qatar Science and Technology Park, Bouyer said it is leading innovative research projects related to sustainable development, marine biodiversity, biofuels, and solar energy.
“I consider TRCQ as a bridge between industry and academia to bring innovative solutions to operations” Bouyer said.
TotalEnergies' commitment to sharing its expertise is fuelled by its aim to develop home-grown solutions to its local operational challenges, thus supporting and contribution to Qatar’s vision of developing a knowledge-based economy.
Giving an update on Qatar TotalEnergies Playground at the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ), Bouyer said it would be delivered by next year before the World Cup 2022.
More than just a playground, this experience will allow children to learn about Qatar’s sustainability efforts, and to better understand energy, and in particular solar, LNG, electricity, carbon capture, plastic recycling. “We are proud of our partnership with Qatar Museums. It is part of our wider CSR program that aims at developing high value initiatives in the domains of culture, education but also youth inclusion, biodiversity and sport” Bouyer added.
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