Science Leader Associate Professor Sadiq Zarrouk attended the 3-day event Geothermal Energy in the Middle East: Unlocking a vast renewable energy resource held 22-24 June 2025 in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Given Saudi Arabia’s commitment to renewable energy and its significant CO₂ emissions from the oil and gas sector, permanent CO₂ mineralization in geothermal reservoirs presents a compelling opportunity. Sadiq’s presentation, Controlled mineralisation, a new direction in geothermal energy development beyond power generation and direct use, was based on our MBIE research programme. The findings were well received by geoscientists, engineers, decision-makers, and policy makers from the region and resulted in several subsequent industry approaches.

The event discussions centered around how geothermal works, the development opportunities in the Middle East, their societal impact, and the latest breakthroughs in upstream and downstream technology from drilling to cascaded optimization of revenue streams such as heating, cooling, desalination, and mineral extraction.

The event was organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the European Association of Geoscientists and  Engineers (EAGE).