World needs new oil, BP says

LONDON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The world is in desperate need of the oil and gas reserves that lie under the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico and other oceans, a BP executive said in London.

Iain Conn, the top refining and marketing executive at BP, spoke at Imperial College in London on developments in the energy sector following the summer oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He said global energy demand forecasts meant deep-water reserves couldn't be ignored.

"There was a good reason why the Macondo well was being drilled in the first place," he said of the failed well that lead to the oil spill. "It's because the world badly needs the oil and gas that reside beneath the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and other oceans in order to meet inexorably growing energy demand."

Even if the world's major oil-producing countries were able to honor commitments, depleted reserves and rising demand were putting a strain on conventional oil and gas fields.

New oil frontiers were emerging in places like the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Brazil and the arctic, where receding sea ice is exposing vast oil and gas reserves.

What happened in the Gulf of Mexico was "a significant failure," said Conn. But with deep-water reserves accounting for 7 percent of global supplies, alternative reserves will continue to play a role in the world's energy future.