(Oil Price) – The world needs more investment in oil and gas as they will continue to account for a large part of the global energy mix in 2050, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Wednesday, reiterating the cartel’s view that investment in new supply will be needed in the foreseeable future.
Primary energy demand will jump by 23% by 2050, Al Ghais said in remarks to the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow, as carried by Reuters.
And oil will still represent 30% of total global energy consumption in 2050, OPEC’s Secretary General said.
Growing economies, urbanization, and rising population numbers lead “to one clear signal that the world will need much more energy than it is consuming today,” Al Ghais added.
Earlier this year, OPEC said in its annual World Oil Outlook (WOO) that oil demand is set to continue rising through 2050, with consumption expected at 123 million barrels per day (bpd) then, up from about 104 million bpd this year.
The world needs global oil industry investment of $18.2 trillion out to 2050, Al Ghais wrote in a foreword to the outlook.
“It is vital that these investments are made for consumers and producers everywhere, as well as for the effective functioning of the global economy at large,” he added.
Last month, OPEC noted the “cautionary tale” of the International Energy Agency (IEA). The agency said in a new report that the world needs to develop new oil and gas resources just to keep output flat amid faster declining rates at existing fields, in a major shift in its narrative from 2021 that ‘no new investment’ is needed in a net-zero by 2050 scenario.
Acknowledging the IEA’s U-turn, OPEC said that “However, the IEA has not referenced how its own advocacy of its Net Zero Emissions Scenario or its own prognosis of peak oil demand have discouraged investments and contributed to uncertainty about long-term oil demand.”
“In contrast to the IEA’s U-turning on this important issue, OPEC has consistently advocated for timely investments in the oil industry to account for decline rates and meet growing demand,” OPEC said, commenting on the IEA’s new stance.
“It is vital that all stakeholders are consistent in recognizing this and do not return to rhetoric that there should be no investment in new oil projects.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
