Earlier this month, I accompanied Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on her first overseas trip as Deputy Secretary of Energy — a visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, a component command of U.S. Central Command. The trip was an exceptional opportunity for the Deputy Secretary to reinforce the strong ties between the United States and our Saudi partners both in the Saudi government and the energy sector.

Our first stop in Saudi Arabia was Riyadh, where the Deputy Secretary met with counterparts in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Water and Electricity, as well as the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy. The meetings covered our cooperation on a wide range of shared interests — including energy efficiency and renewable energy, education and training, carbon capture and storage, grid resiliency and cyber threat concerns. In their discussions, the Deputy Secretary and her counterparts identified concrete actions we can take to help propel our bilateral energy dialogue and ensure that both nations can securely meet our energy needs. A final highlight of our stay in Riyadh was a brief tour of the Saudi National Museum, which gave us a beautiful introduction to the country’s history — from its first oil well to fascinating Islamic art.

From Riyadh, we travelled to Dhahran to the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil and gas company. The Deputy Secretary met with company leadership and learned about their work around vehicle emissions, engine efficiency, energy use modeling, unconventional gas development and enhanced imaging tools for resource mapping, much of which is being done with the help of research conducted at some of the Department of Energy’s 17 National Labs.

Our Aramco hosts gave the Deputy Secretary an up-close look at the Ras Tanura oil export terminal and refinery complex, one of the world’s largest crude oil terminals; the maritime operations center that manages tanker traffic in the Gulf; and the Manifa oil field, which produces approximately 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The Deputy Secretary also met with senior leaders from several U.S. companies operating in Saudi Arabia to hear their perspectives on ways we can continue to enhance our economic and trade ties. These tours and briefings underscored the many ways the Department of Energy and our partners around the world can work together to innovate and tackle the toughest energy challenges.

From Dhahran we drove across the King Fahd Causeway to reach Bahrain and Naval Support Activity-Bahrain, our naval base that is home to the Fifth Fleet. There, the Deputy Secretary was able to discuss the critical role our military plays in promoting global energy security in the Gulf, as well as learn about the impressive strides Naval Support Activity-Bahrain has made in their on-base efficiency efforts. The base recently won the Navy Region Europe Africa Southwest Asia 2014 Energy Biggest Loser Competition. This achievement was made possible by working diligently to identify common-sense ways to reduce energy usage and successfully spreading the word among the nearly 8,000 U.S. military personnel stationed there. Base leadership also showed the Deputy Secretary around the harbor and pier facilities and discussed their oil response procedures and capabilities. This was extremely relevant to her responsibilities surrounding emergency incident management and response.

We returned to Washington (and its colder weather) with many new insights the Deputy Secretary will carry forward as we continue to advance our strategic relationship and long-term partnership with Saudi Arabia.

Want to learn more about the Energy Department’s efforts to engage and partner with other countries around energy issues? Visit the website of our Office of International Affairs.