Abdallah Jumah said Tuesday at an international energy conference oil and gas will be needed to meet rising demand for energy around the world.

"If ... conventional and non-conventional oil resources fall victim to well-intentioned but ultimately flawed or confusing energy policies, then the necessary investment of time, toil and treasure may not materialize, and a significant proportion of these precious resources might not be recovered," Jumah, president and chief executive officer of Aramco, said at the CERA weeklong energy confab.

Jumah said that in a bid to tackle the perception of peak oil, both conventional oil as well non-conventional resources such as tar sands must be considered. He placed the world's in-place endowment of conventional oil and non-conventional fuels at between 13 trillion and 16 trillion barrels.