Oil execs say shortages loom
Published: Feb. 13, 2008 at 1:32 PM
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Oil company executives meeting in Cambridge, Mass., said the difficulty producing oil and an uneasing demand could create decades of global instability.
"An oil crisis is coming and sooner than most people think," Chief Executive John Hess of Hess Corp. said at the annual oil executives gathering at the Cambridge Energy Research Association, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.
None of the executives ventured a guess as to future price of crude oil, now about $93 a barrel. But, a lack of oil wouldn't be the cause of future shortages, they said.
"The supply challenge is really not one of scarcity as some believe," Exxon Mobile Corp. senior vice president Mark Albers said.
The problem lies with the expenses and technology required to produce oil as the current, easier-to-get-at oil fields age and diminish, executives said.
Exxon has predicted demand will increase 40 percent in the next two decades.
Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco Abdallah Ju'mah said declines at current oil fields weren't expected soon.
"We cannot afford to abandon fossil fuels and still deliver the volume of energy needed to sustain the world's economy and social level, to alleviate global poverty," he in the Morning News' report.
"An oil crisis is coming and sooner than most people think," Chief Executive John Hess of Hess Corp. said at the annual oil executives gathering at the Cambridge Energy Research Association, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.
None of the executives ventured a guess as to future price of crude oil, now about $93 a barrel. But, a lack of oil wouldn't be the cause of future shortages, they said.
"The supply challenge is really not one of scarcity as some believe," Exxon Mobile Corp. senior vice president Mark Albers said.
The problem lies with the expenses and technology required to produce oil as the current, easier-to-get-at oil fields age and diminish, executives said.
Exxon has predicted demand will increase 40 percent in the next two decades.
Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco Abdallah Ju'mah said declines at current oil fields weren't expected soon.
"We cannot afford to abandon fossil fuels and still deliver the volume of energy needed to sustain the world's economy and social level, to alleviate global poverty," he in the Morning News' report.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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