Saudi Arabia’s oil minister predicted an eventual end to the nation’s fossil fuel exports, anticipating instead the day the world’s largest crude exporter will sell solar power.

“In Saudi Arabia we recognize that eventually, one of these days, we’re not going to need fossil fuels,” Ali Al-Naimi said at a climate conference in Paris on Thursday. “I don’t know when -- 2040, 2050 or thereafter. So we have embarked on a program to develop solar energy.” He later said fossil fuels will still dominate the world’s energy supply through 2050.

Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf oil producers are boosting power supplies to serve their economies and populations. The country, which supplies more than 10 percent of the world’s crude, is increasing its output of the fossil fuel as part of a strategy to lead OPEC in defending market share against rising supplies from outside the 12-nation group.