LONDON (Reuters) – The end of oil is not in sight, OPEC’s top official said, because the pace of growth in energy demand means alternatives cannot replace it on the scale needed , and the focus should be on reducing emissions and not on oil consumption.
In an opinion piece in the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) on Friday, OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais wrote that there is “a worrying trend in narratives” that use terms like the end oil, which have the potential to foster energy policies that fuel energy chaos.
“What if supply-side investments decline as a result, but oil demand continues to increase, as we are seeing today?” Al Ghais wrote in the MEES article that OPEC shared on X.
“The reality is that the end of oil is not in sight,” he writes.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries estimates that oil consumption will continue to rise in coming decades, contrary to bodies such as the International Energy Agency, which predicts it will peak by 2030.
The oil industry is investing in technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage, clean hydrogen and direct air capture, “showing that it is possible to reduce emissions while still producing the oil the world needs,” Al Ghais wrote.
Al Ghais wrote that the world has invested more than $9.5 trillion in transition costs over the past two decades, but wind and solar still provide just under 4% of the global energy, while electric vehicles have a total global penetration rate of between 2% and 3%.
“The reality is that many alternatives cannot replace oil on the scale needed, or are unaffordable in many regions.”
(Reporting by Alex Lawler; Editing by Jane Merriman)
