The global oil industry is “under siege” by climate campaigners who have “seized the momentum” to dictate the energy transition with misguided talk about halting investment in oil and gas, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Monday, as carried by Reuters.
“Energy affordability, energy security and the need to reduce emissions require a delicate balancing act, comprehensive and sustainable solutions, and with all voices heard, and listened to,” Barkindo said virtually during the 2022 edition of Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja.
“Focusing on only one of these issues, while ignoring the others, can lead to unintended consequences, such as market distortions,” OPEC’s secretary general added.
“Public discourse around energy, climate and sustainable development has become increasingly noisier and more forceful” in recent years, Barkindo noted.
The oil and gas industry needs predictable investment and “the right enabling environment in addressing global energy needs,” according to a readout of his speech published by OPEC.
Specifically for Africa, the lack of oil and gas investments because of the green shift would be “a tragedy” for the continent if Africa’s vast oil and gas resources were to become stranded.
Over the past few months, the world saw first-hand what fossil fuel shortages could be like. Government priorities turned from actions to reduce emissions in the long term to addressing the immediate energy crunch, soaring energy bills, and catering for the near-term energy security.
Global annual upstream spending needs to increase by as much as 54 percent to $542 billion if the oil market is to avert the next supply shortage shock, Moody’s said last year.
Upstream oil and gas investment must rise to the pre-pandemic levels of around $525 billion per year through the end of the decade so that the industry can ensure a demand-supply balance, Saudi Arabia-based International Energy Forum (IEF) and IHS Markit said in a report in December.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
ADVERTISEMENT
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
- Don't Count On OPEC To Bring Oil Prices Down
- Russia Has $630 Billion To Spare As It Considers Cutting European Gas Flows
- Oil Prices Retreat As Biden Leaves Energy Out Of Sanctions Package
Without global investment returning to pre-pandemic level of $542 bn annually for at least the next ten years, the global oil market can’t avoid rocketing oil and gas prices, a continuous shrinking of global oil production capacity and an impending supply shock.
The irony is that the environmental activists want to save the world from climate change and CO2 emissions and yet their dogmatic and short-sighted campaigns against fossil fuels are threatening the world by undermining the global economy and also retarding their own cause by forcing electricity utilities around the world to return to coal-fired electricity thus enhancing emissions.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London