The World Will Need Oil For Decades -- OPEC Chief

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BAGHDAD, Sept 6 (KUNA) -- OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais on Saturday said the world would continue to need oil for decades, amid forecast huge investments.
Calls to abandon the crude oil and replace it with other energy resources are unrealistic, Al-Ghais said, addressing International Baghdad Energy Forum.
All the calls to abandon oil rapidly and without calculations lack realism, he said, warning that such an approach would lead to confusion in the energy security and cause prices' fluctuations that would in turn create hard economic challenges.
The history of energy has "taught us that progress does not mean cancellation but expansion and integration for the energy resources cannot be cast aside but allowed to coexist for service of the human race," Al-Ghais said.
Despite growth of the renewable energy and production of electric cars, the world has continued to depend on the oil by-products and gas as well as coal, Al-Ghais said.
OPEC reports show that fossil fuel accounts to 80 percent of the whole energy resources globally (2024), a proportion identical to that recorded in 1960, when OPEC was established in Baghdad. although the global consumption has grown five folds since then, the OPEC chief added.
As to consumption, Al-Ghais said the world demand for various energy types would increase by 23 percent from 308 million barrels per day to 387 million bpd by onset of 2050.
Oil will account to 30 percent of the energy resources until middle of the century, and oil and gas are expected to account to 50 percent together of the total energy resources, while oil demand will continue to rise to reach 123 million bpd by 2050.
He added that OPEC production will rise from 49 million bpd to 64 million bpd by 2050, and the exports from the Middle East will constitute half of the global trade in the crude oil.
The world will need oil for the coming decades and there is a pressing need to increase the investments in the oil industry, forecast to reach USD 18.2 trillion by onset of 2050, he concluded. (end)
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