During his visit, Al Ghais met with Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad to discuss global oil market dynamics, OPEC's strategies to ensure market stability, and Iran's role in the organization.

The discussions also touched on the energy sector's challenges, including geopolitical tensions and the transition to renewable energy. Al Ghais emphasized the importance of unity among OPEC members in navigating these challenges effectively. Following the meeting, he visited the Oil Monitoring Center in Tehran, where he was briefed on Iran's advanced oil production and export monitoring systems. This visit highlighted Iran's technical capabilities and its commitment to transparency in the global oil market.

Later in the day, Al Ghais met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, where broader economic and energy-related issues were discussed. The meeting underscored Iran's strategic importance within OPEC and its potential to contribute to the organization's objectives.

President Pezeshkian expressed Iran's support for OPEC's efforts to stabilize oil markets and ensure fair returns for member countries.

The visit concluded with a comprehensive interview with the SHANA news agency, Iran's leading energy news outlet. In the interview, Al Ghais elaborated on the outcomes of his meetings and emphasized the importance of dialogue and collaboration among OPEC Member Countries.

He highlighted the need for a balanced approach to energy transition, ensuring that oil-producing nations are not left behind in the global shift toward cleaner energy sources.

Al Ghais also expressed optimism about Iran's future contributions to OPEC and the global oil market, noting that the country's expertise and resources are vital to the Organization's success.

The full text of our interview with OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais follows:

Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim

Good evening, H.E. Mr. Al Ghais. On behalf of SHANA news agency, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude for generously allocating time from your busy schedule to speak with us today.

Your leadership and contributions have had a profound impact, and we are truly honored to have this opportunity to gain insights from you. We hold the utmost respect for your dedication to OPEC, and we look forward to learning from your perspective. Thank you once again for this privilege, and we are eager to begin our conversation.

Thank you very much for having the time also to interview me.

As the first question, what is your assessment of the current oil market situation and the state of oil supply and demand in the market?

Well first of all, before answering that I would like to express my profound gratitude to the Islamic Republic of Iran. I am very happy to be here in these special days of the month of February, special days for the history of the Islamic Republic, Alhamdulillah, I’m home between my family, my brothers, my sisters.

I would like to thank His Excellency the President of the country, His Excellency the Minister of Petroleum for receiving me today.

I had very fruitful discussions with both His Excellency President Pezeshkian as well as His Excellency Minister Paknejad and my colleagues from the Ministry.

And it's always a pleasure to be back in Iran which I consider a home like my own home.

To answer your question, we feel that the market right now, fundamentally speaking, has good condition.

We feel that the work that has been done over the past period by OPEC Plus, whether it's the adjustments to the production, whether it is the additional voluntary cuts that were done by certain countries, by eight countries.

Also, the efforts to put in very effective mechanisms for compensation, in addition to continuously monitoring the fundamentals that are evolving very rapidly. I would say whether it is economical or geopolitical, there are many moving parts always.

We are always on top of this through the JMMC meetings which are happening regularly.

In fact, we had the honor to have His Excellency Paknejad joining the JMMC meeting at the yesterday [meeting], because Iran is holding the rotating presidency of OPEC.

So, we feel the market is in good condition, but we also have to be cautious, we have to be preemptive, we have to be in a proactive approach because there are so many unknowns that are always moving and uncertainties. I would say, especially with regards to some of the concerns that we saw last year regarding the Chinese economic growth.

Personally, I think this is overblown out of proportion. China is still solid, fundamentally with economic growth of close to 5%, which is significant. I think it is the second largest or the third largest in terms of the growth rate for global GDP.

We feel the global economy is growing very well at 3.1%. This is our forecast with oil demand this year projected to grow at 1.4 million per day growth compared to last year.

So, the fundamentals look healthy, but we have to always be on our guard.

We want to make sure that the market is stable. Stability is our objective. We don't want volatility. Volatility is not good for us as producers.

Also, it is not good for the consumers. So, we will keep doing what we do best in OPEC and OPEC Plus, Inshah-Allah.

The second question. How do you evaluate OPEC's efforts to stabilize the oil market?

Indeed, as I was saying earlier on, we have very regular meetings of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee. It is a very effective body. Now going into its eighth year, we had the 58th meeting yesterday, sorry, the day before yesterday.

The committee is very effective monitoring very closely together with the OPEC Secretariat.

All the market fundamentals, whether it's economic, concerns or adjustments that we see to the economy.

We give a presentation to the ministers on the JMMC done by my colleagues and the research team. We look at the supply side, whether it's Non-DOC supply, Non-Declaration of Cooperation, mainly the US, Brazil and Canada.

We look at the demand side of course. I spoke briefly about the concerns that whether with China, everything we put into a big perspective and we're presented to the ministers in the JMMC, they have a very effective role in monitoring continuously.

I think to be very fair and frank, yes, you will expect me to say this as Secretary General, but the question should be "What if we didn’t have OPEC plus and the collaboration in OPEC plus over the last eight years? "We would have a much, much different and I would say worse condition in the global oil markets. And that is something that we don't want of course as OPEC or producers, but I think also, consuming countries don't want volatility, they want stability in oil because oil is energy, energy is growth for the global economy.

So, we are very happy about the role that OPEC Plus has been doing together with OPEC since 2017, and we will continue to do Insha-Allah our best.

My next question is about greenhouse gases. What is OPEC's analysis and assessment of the Net Zero issue?

Well, this is a very good question. Thank you for that and I have actually had a very strong position on the matter of net zero, especially the IEA, International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Scenario by 2050, which they issued in 2021 for COP26.

And since that moment, OPEC has taken a clear position about this being what I call unrealistic.

It is a scenario which is drawing conclusions in 2050 and working backwards.

They needed things to change including the unrealistic sense that was given to people about oil demand dropping by 75 million barrels per day by 2050, which we believe is really unrealistic.

It is a scenario that has been developed based on ideological beliefs, not based on realities.

And the proof is very simple. We see now since the scenario was launched in 2021, we are now in 2025 over the past two, three years, especially in Europe, in many parts of the world, but especially in Europe, there has been pushing back by governments, by consumers, by citizens, about these net scenario policies because the drive to move from this type of energy that the world is using,80% fossil fuel energy today and for the last 30, 40 years, still 80% to move to 80% renewable energy is not achievable overnight.

And it is not planned and in order to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, there are other ways also to do it using oil such as technologies, such as carbon capture, such as using circular carbon economy, many, many techniques that are in process to be more and more developed, can be easily developed.

We are adopting them in many of our OPEC Member Countries, but the solution to reach net zero or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions does not have to be by reducing the oil demand, because everything you see today contains oil. Everything.

You look at the food, the medicine, the plastics, the airplanes, the offices we live in, the cars, everything contains petrochemicals, and petrochemicals are derived from crude oil, from refining and the petrochemical industry.

Transportation is a big part, aviation transportation, car transportation, shipping, the global economy, the global trade, the revolves around the usage of oil.

Oil today is 30-31% of the global energy mix. So, when we talk about net zero or the IEA pushing a scenario like net zero, it has to be a realistic scenario based on economic feasibility and viability and not on ideology. It has to be based on practical use, not on wishful thinking.

And that's why in OPEC we have always pushed back against it, including many of our ministers and the OPEC Secretariat

We do not have any issue with the IEA, but we believe that the problem is the net zero scenario, and it is quite dangerous actually, because it has, unfortunately, caused many governments to be misled into putting into place policies that have become much more expensive for their consumers.

And when the consumers feel that they are paying more for electricity, they will push back, and this is what we have seen happen over 2-3 years.

Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary General. We have seen numerous articles by you on the OPEC website that aim to clarify the situation of the oil and energy markets. Why have you undertaken this important initiative?

Well, thank you again; I think this is very important. We have seen that since a few years ago there has been many accusations directed to the oil industry and to OPEC, of course, to oil producers in general.

Again, I believe this is part of the ideology, anti-fossil fuels that should not be there actually, because if we talk about your earlier question, greenhouse gas emissions and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or simply emissions, this is the core objective of the climate change or conventions and the Paris Agreement in 2015.

The Paris Agreement does not say we must reduce oil consumption. In fact, it is beautifully crafted in a way to protect oil countries, oil exporting countries or fossil fuel exporting countries, and will depend. Their economy is dependent on us.

So, our objective in the OPEC Secretariat, my objective also is to ensure that people all around the world have more knowledge about the objectives of the Paris Agreement, the real objectives. Not the objectives we have been seeing happening. It seems like nowadays these meetings are becoming open meetings, but there are smaller meetings where things are being decided against oil and oil producers, and this is not the objective, nor the core or the heart of the agreement.

The agreement when it was discussed and negotiated for many, many years until it was finally signed. As I said earlier on, it was very clear in protecting the economies of countries that are depending heavily on fossil fuels, and that was a very carefully negotiated agreement that was a win-win for everybody.

So, we must ensure that when we try to deal with climate change and emissions, we don't deviate from the heart of the Paris Agreement and the Climate Change Convention to become targeting anti-oil.

So, my own articles highlight these matters. By reaching out to everybody, by putting them in newspapers in many, many languages, including in Farsi, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and SHANA for publishing my articles in Farsi, translating them.

And we have seen them in Chinese, in Japanese, in French, Spanish, so many languages, and I think they are making an impact.

Now we see countries that are not even oil countries, or not even oil producers, some of them in South America. They pick up on some of these articles in Spanish, and they publish them, I think I saw last time in Peru or in Chile.

And this is something which means the message is reaching people, so we have to be more active, more vocal to clarify the message about oil and the importance of oil to the rest of the world.

How reappointment of you as OPEC Secretary General will strengthen OPEC activities?

Thank you very much. Today I had the chance to in-person thank His Excellency, the President and His Excellency, the Minister of Petroleum for the Islamic Republic for Iran's confidence in me and appreciation of the work I've been doing over the past years. I take this opportunity to again thank all the OPEC Member Countries for their confidence and trust in me and my team of course.

What I have been doing is not only down to me, it is a teamwork. I have many colleagues in the OPEC Secretariat. We have almost 150 people working there. So, my reappointment is testament to their success also, not just to mine.

Of course, this is a vote of confidence which gives me more power and energy and willingness to continue doing what we do for OPEC, make the voice of OPEC loud and clear, the position loud and clear, protecting the interests of our Member Countries. And we will continue to do that, me and my team Insha-Allah.

Thank you. One of OPEC's significant events will be the holding of the OPEC International Seminar in July. What message does OPEC want to convey to the world?

First of all, I would like to invite SHANA to be present Insha-Allah in the seminar with us in July. It will be an honor to have a team from SHANA.

We look forward to seeing you and the colleagues Insha-Allah.

Of course it is a very important global event. I would say this is the 9th Seminar since we started. It happens every three years before.

Now because we have seen the success of it and the people that are coming are over 1,200 people last time, so we have made it every two years.

We have planned maybe in the future Insha-Allah, if we can, to make it a yearly event.

Last year, we had 17 ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC. We had CEOs of all the global oil companies, international and our national oil companies.

It is a big gathering for industry leaders to come to here for two days a program, which is a very rich program.

Many discussions about energy in general, including the topics you asked me about such as the role of OPEC in stabilizing the market, the importance of a stable market, greenhouse gas emissions, technologies, what is the energy transition, where is the world going.

So, it is a very significant impactful event and the fact that OPEC is hosting it, also brings a certain kind of attention from people that we don't expect.

You know, even people who are not oil companies come to this event because they want to hear OPEC's perspective.

And we have had very positive feedback from many people who are not involved in the oil industry. And they were surprised that OPEC and OPEC member countries are embracing renewable energies, for example, embracing the energy transition.

But as we always say in OPEC, the energy transition, we call it energy transitions with an S in the end. Because it is a plural, it's not one transition; it is not one size that every country must do in the same way. It is every country has its own pathway to make its own energy transition. Therefore, I always use the term energy transitions.

And this is the message we want to give to the future through our seminar, which we have.

The theme is called “Charting Pathways for Sustainable Energy Future for All.”

Because we really believe that we have to sit together all as industry stakeholders, not OPEC alone, not consumers alone. OPEC wants to bring consumers and producers to promote this dialogue. Insha-Allah it will be beneficial for the future of all of us.

A historical review of the oil market shows that market instability and volatility have significantly decreased. What has been OPEC's role in market stability?

Well, that's a very good point and I thank you for raising it because indeed, if you look at the historical data over the last year or even the last two years, the oil as a commodity has been the least volatile compared to natural gas, for example, compared to coal and other commodities.

And this is predominantly due to OPEC's and OPEC Plus's actions, but also more importantly because of our transparency. We are very, very transparent in our actions. We are very open. We hide nothing from anybody.

Our decisions are very clearly explained to the international market through press conferences, through engagements with the media, with international media.

And we are very clear about what we aim to achieve. In fact, I would like to draw your attention that last year, the United States Federal Reserve, they issued a paper for their Board of Governors meeting. The title of the paper was “OPEC Messaging, and how good OPEC Messaging is for the stability of the oil market”.

And I really recommend if you find that paper, it is a very good paper, done by several researchers who did it for the Board of Governors of the US Fed.

It talks about how OPEC Messaging has very good impact to reduce the volatility in the market. So, this is the important thing. We have always been effective with our decisions, but how to communicate these good decisions to the market is the other important part. So, I think it is a great deal due to our communication as well and our messaging.

What efforts has the OPEC Secretariat made to coordinate the positions of OPEC and OPEC+ Member Countries on climate change?

We are very active also on this front, and we have since I became Secretary General, Alhamdulillah with the support of the Board of Governors.

I have established a new department in OPEC, which is called the Environmental Matters Department. In the past we had a small unit with two people or three people working in it. Now we have a big department, we have a head of department, we have a team.

We are very active in coordinating between meetings called Climate Coordination Meetings. Twice a year. We have the first one coming up next May, where our member countries and the other Non-OPEC countries, which are part of the OPEC Plus.

We invite them to the Secretariat, we sit together, we coordinate, we see what they have in terms of information, knowledge, we see what other parties have in terms of information, knowledge and everybody gets together and we develop a common position for us.

Because we all face that same challenge when we come to the climate change. If you recall in the beginning, I mentioned how oil is being targeted as the bad person in the room. Oil is to be left out of these discussions.

And we always say that oil, OPEC oil and oil producers are part of the solution for the problem. We are not the problem. We know who has created the historical highest emissions. It is not OPEC Member Countries. And yet we have been left out of these discussions until very recently. Alhamdulillah, as OPEC, we have made our position clear in Dubai (COP-28) and in Baku (COP-29) in the past 2 years.

Also, during the COP meetings, we as the OPEC Secretariat, we arrange for the the oil producers in OPEC Plus to have coordination meetings to develop a stronger position for oil producers.

What are the challenges of investment in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry?

This is a brilliant question and I thank you for that because I always talk everywhere I can about the importance of the investment.

You know, we have a global economy that is going to double in its size compared to the day. From almost 170 trillion dollars, the size of today's global economy is going to reach 358 trillion dollars by 2050. We have population, global population, will rise from currently 8 billion to almost 10 billion by 2050.

Most of that growth in population will be in the developing world. In addition to that, we have urbanization which is something that nobody is really paying attention to.

According to some United Nations statistics, we have almost 580 million people, almost 0.6 billion, they will move to new cities all around the world from now until 2030, which is only 5 years from today. That's more than half a billion.

So, you can only work out the size of this tremendous requirement for more energy that will be required from now to 2030 and more so to 2050. Because when you have new cities you require the full infrastructure, you require airports, you require buses, you require cars, you require lights, everything.

This requires tremendous investment in electric grid, infrastructure, power, the cables link. The IEA unfortunately thinks that the world can be an electric world very simply by moving away from fossil fuels.

But how do you deliver the electricity from the source to the end user? That's the missing link which is what we have always said. We have to invest in the full value chain.

Oil will continue to be representing around 30% of the global energy mix by 2050.

So that means oil demand will rise from today. We're talking nearly 104 million barrels a day to 120 million barrels a day by 2050.

That significant rise in oil demand would require much more investment because you know today, we are depleting our production as it is. We need to invest just to recover what we are producing because the decline rate is around 5-6%, and some places it's more than that.

And there is not enough investment to replace what we are producing today, let alone to produce for the future demand.

As I showed how demand will reach 120 million barrels a day. So, we need to invest around 17.4 trillion dollars from now to 2050. The world needs to invest to be able to meet the demand requirements.

Of course, most of that almost 85% of that will be in upstream and that's around 14 trillion for upstream and around 2 trillion for downstream. And then we have another trillion or so for the midstream which is logistics, shipping, everything.

It is a significant challenge because we have also because of this ideological driven push to move away from fossil fuels. Banks around the world are not funding any fossil fuel projects. So, you have countries with a lot of reserves they want to produce but they cannot get access to funding. This is another challenge which is I think now is changing and is becoming better.

But we are talking about investment requirements for over 640 billion dollars per year from now to 2050 that the oil industry will require for reaching the 17 trillion dollars' investment.

We have seen improvement in investments over the past few years since COVID but in COVID it was a very low. We have seen improvement but still not reaching the level that is required to be able to deliver the full oil demand that the world will need in the future. Insha-Allah this will change we hope so.

How do you assess the future of the "Declaration of Cooperation" and OPEC+?

We are now in the eighth year, since 2017 since the Declaration of Cooperation was signed, it is going very strong. We are very united. Alhamdulillah, our efforts are paying off our Member Countries and our partners from Non-OPEC are feeling this importance of the work that is being done together.

As I said, the stabilizing factor today in the oil market is predominantly the effort of OPEC, Plus, if the market did not have the OPEC Plus, it will be a chaos. It will be a disaster in the oil market. It will be more volatility. It will be spikes in prices energy all around the world will suffer. The global economy will suffer.

So I think we at OPEC Plus, all of us countries, 22 countries, are very much aware of the importance of continuing this  united cooperation, the strong cooperation, this cohesiveness between the group and we see that others around the world, including many consumers, feel the importance of what we are doing in terms of providing the stability so we will continue Insha-Allah, together, our leaders, our ministers, our governors, our technical bodies are all very proud of the work we are doing and the Secretariat we are there to support our member countries.

What will be the role of oil in the global energy mix for consumers in the long term?

Definitely it's part of the energy mix. I said like earlier on, is 30%. You cannot simply reduce 30% and take it out, because we have very clear modeling inside OPEC, where we assess how the growth will be the future. And I want to talk about renewables, because everybody today, or many, especially in other parts of the world, not in OPEC, are considering renewables as the silver bullet, as they say, renewables will save the day.

 They claim It will come and will replace oil, and we move on from one source of energy to another. But it is not that simple. You know why? Because 40 years ago, 80% of the energy mix was fossil fuels. Today, it is 79%, so reduced 1%, so how do we imagine even that renewables will replace the 80% in the next 20, 30, 50, years.

 OPEC does not say "No" to renewables. In fact, we are investing in renewables. Even in Iran, they are developing solar panels. Mashallah, and many of our Member Countries. Renewables will be needed, yes, but renewables will be complementing oil, gas and other fundamental sources of energy, because we are calculating in OPEC today that renewables are only providing 3 or 4% of the global energy mix. Oil is providing 30%, gas is providing 25%Oil and gas today together are providing 55% of this mix.

We believe by 2050 renewables will reach 14%, so that will increase by around 11% still not enough to replace the big bulk, which is still fossil fuels. Let's remember, as I was telling you, the population will rise and it will be more to provide reliable sources of energy.

Consuming countries which are now developing such as China, India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America require energy for growth. Oil demand in Europe will drop. Yes, we know that it's already dropping. And we know oil demand in the United States maybe will be staying flat, but the rest of the world still oil demand is growing.

In Africa and many parts, I mentioned, you look at the energy consumption per capita in those developing countries, compared to the Europe or the USA consumers, it is much lower there.

So, with that growth, it will definitely mean that oil demand, energy demand, will continue to rise. And consumers are aware of this. We are aware of this. And again, when we take the ideology out of this discussion, everybody knows that you need to invest in oil and gas. You need to provide oil and gas for the future.

In fact, even some European countries who are so radically anti oil and gas, now they are reverting back to using oil and gas, not only oil and gas, even coal, which is the worst pollution source, because energy security lies at the matter, at the heart of this matter.

You cannot talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions when you undermine your energy security. You cannot talk about moving away from oil and gas when your people have no heat at home, or when your consumers pay three times more electricity for their bills, and all the money they get from their salaries goes to pay for electricity and heating.

So, it has to be a very fine balance. At OPEC, we always talk about a balanced approach. We have to take care of the considerations of all people around the world, not a few. We have to take care into consideration all technologies. Because, as I explained earlier, there are so many technologies to reduce emissions. We need to invest in these technologies.

The world needs to invest in technologies and to promote technologies that can reduce emissions, taking to consideration and approach that embraces all peoples, all technologies and all fuels. We must not discriminate against any fuel, any source or energy source, and that includes oil and gas.

Recently, the JMMC (Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee) meeting was held, and subsequently, Kazakhstan emphasized its commitment to continue its obligations. How does the market perceive this reaffirmation?

I think the JMMC has been very effective, as I said earlier on, in not only following the market conditions, supply and demand and making good recommendations, but also in effectively pursuing the importance of conformity with production adjustments, because it has to be fair. Certain countries are performing their obligations, other countries must also perform their full obligations, and this is the principle that we operate with.

And Kazakhstan, since you mentioned, Kazakhstan has been improving much more its conformity. And I think when they issue a statement like this, that is because they are serious.

So, we want to thank Republic of Kazakhstan for the positive statement. The market has taken this very well. Kazakhstan, since you talk about Kazakhstan, has been very active with the Secretariat, also to talk to the companies that do the assessment for production, and that's why the transparency between Kazakhstan and the companies that do the assessment has become much more impactful, and we see that everybody is realizing that Kazakhstan is actually improving its conformity.

What is the position of OPEC countries regarding the energy transition?

As I said, I think the key for energy transition is the "S" at the end, which is missing in many cases. But for me, it's never missing. I like to always say energy transitions, and even in my speeches in and I think also is important. I like to say it because I really like the words of the President of Azerbaijan, His Excellency, Ilham Aliev in COP 29 as he said, we have to be thankful to God, to Allah subhanawataala, because oil is a gift from God.

And I repeated those words during the COP 29 and I really believe oil is a gift from God, because you look at today again, everything we have today is thanks to oil, even antibiotics when we get sick, the equipment when you go to the hospital, the injections, the syringes and the other medical tools. I cannot imagine anything we have today on this table, the camera you are using, the microphones, our clothes, there is everything related, some way, to the oil industry.

And therefore, when we talk about energy transitions, for some it may look like it's abandoning oil and gas. But for some others, it's not about abandoning oil and gas, and it has to be fair, balanced, equitable, and it must not undermine energy security, and must not undermine economic growth. This is very important, and as I said, it should be based on all peoples, all fuels and all technologies approach. This is the approach of OPEC.

Thank you very much. What factors do you consider to be the cause of instability in the oil and energy markets?

I think it's a very, very good question, but I think there are a few things and the number one is lack of clarity.

I think volatility is mainly when there is lack of clarity and transparency. And that's why at OPEC, our approach is to be very transparent with our decisions. We always explain our decisions very well. We make sure that market understand them.

We take a proactive approach with the media, with the analysts. We explain things to people, and this is very important to have that transparency and open engagement with stakeholders in the market to understand. That would be the primary thing I would think of. In addition to making sure that everything is clear to the stakeholders, I think it's also very clear that we work together with good faith, with good intentions, as partners, as one family, and this is what we do in OPEC. We have been doing for 65 years. This year, in fact, in September; OPEC will celebrate Insha-Allah, 65th anniversary, going stronger from year to year. Insha-Allah, we will continue to do what we do.
 

As you mentioned, His Excellency the Minister of Petroleum of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the President of the OPEC Conference in 2025. How do you estimate the Organization's activities under his presidency?

We are very happy because His Excellency Minister Paknejad, is a veteran of the industry.

He knows the industry very well. He's been with NIOC for so many years in various posts, various positions.

So, he has a very well rounded experience in the oil industry and the oil markets.

And this is very important because during these discussions with the ministers, His Excellency can bring a lot of value through his own experience and his own knowledge.

In addition to that, I have met him recently, spoken with him several times. His Excellency is a diplomat as well as being a technocrat. But also, he performs his role in a very diplomatic manner, which is very important to lead the Organization. He has a vision. We discussed today certain challenges.

I would say that I'm not representing only OPEC, but representing the oil industry in general and we put a plan together with Iran holding the presidency, how OPEC should act to take future measures, with regarding issues related to climate change, stability of the oil market, how the COP meetings will go ahead, how we deal with issues related to plastics such as plastic pollution.

So, there are many fronts and I think we benefited very much today, me and my team from the discussion we had with His Excellency Paknejad. We look forward to working with the Islamic Republic of Iran's presidency this year, Insha-Allah.

Thank you so much, His Excellency Mr. Secretary General, for generously allocating your valuable time to speak with us today. Your insights and perspectives have been incredibly enlightening, and we deeply appreciate the opportunity to learn from you Mr. Al Ghais.

We look forward to sharing this conversation with our audience and hope to have the privilege of engaging with you again in the future. Thank you once again for allocation of your time and for your unwavering commitment to OPEC as Secretary General.

Many thanks to you, and thank SHANA again, and thank you. I Thank the Islamic Republic of Iran. It's really an honor to be here again on this lovely visit always.

Interview by: Houri Ghasemi &

Reza Abesh Ahmadlou