Shell: Technology key to energy security

LONDON, July 27 (UPI) -- The world is facing drastic energy shortages unless investors back technological advancements in all forms of energy, executives said in London.

Peter Voser, the chief executive officer at Royal Dutch Shell, told an audience in London that the global community needed to look for new ways to exploit renewable and fossil fuels.

"Even assuming heroic steps to use energy more efficiently, the world will need to develop all energy types," he said.

Scientists at Shell said that without new ways to increase energy supplies, the world could face looming energy shortages in the coming decades even as new sources of energy such as Iraqi oil come on stream.

The world, Voser said, would need to replace 40 million barrels of oil in daily production by 2020 to make up for declining reserves. This, he said, was about four times what Saudi Arabia is producing currently.

Renewable resources, meanwhile, could supply 30 percent of the world's energy needs by 2050.

"I'm convinced that technology will help us double our energy supply, while at the same time tackling the threat of climate change," he said.