Fatih Birol - "We Are Entering A New World Energy Order" - Foreign Policy

[hatrack]

Foreign Policy: The Wall Street Journal recently reported that your agency is preparing to revise its estimate of future oil supplies. Can you tell us a little bit about your preliminary findings?

Fatih Birol: We publish a book every year, World Energy Outlook (WEO), that lays out strategies related to energy and climate change. For this year’s WEO, we wanted to look at oil-supply prospects, as there are a lot of question marks. So, we are looking at 400 top oil fields, on a field-by-field basis, asking how much oil we can realistically expect to come to market. We not only look at the geological part of the issue, but also the economics. We are going to publish our study on the 12th of November, so I don’t know the results yet. What I can tell you is that what we are experiencing in the last few years—high prices, lack of investment in many areas, and the significant decline rates, especially in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and elsewhere—will be considered. We are entering a new world energy order. Today, demand for oil is dominated by China, India, and even by the Middle East countries themselves. The main actors of the recent past—namely the OECD countries, rich countries, the United States, Europe, Japan—their time is passé. It’s over.

EDIT

FP: Do you believe in peak oil?

FB: Of course, but the question is when? Global oil resources are limited. We have conventional oil; we have unconventional oil. We have oil in the North Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico. We have more oil in the OPEC countries. What I can tell you is that one day global conventional oil will peak. This will depend on many factors, including the role of technology, investment, and production policies. When we look at oil outside of the OPEC countries, when you put all of them together, I think it is going to peak very soon. But we have unconventional oil, and we have oil in the Middle East as well. How much will come to the market from unconventional oil?

EDIT

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4326

[Hydra]

1. So why are we using oil again?

Oh, wait, there are people making money off of it. Silly me.

Think they'll publish results that will push the cost higher? I'd lay a bet on that if I hadn't spent the last of my money on gas this morning.