A Saudi top official while addressing a seminar said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which celebrated its golden jubilee last month, has produced more than 400bn barrels since it was founded. The Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister of Saudi Arabia Ali Al-Naimi also revealed the OPEC represented more than one trillion barrels of oil reserves.
The energy symposium held at Riyadh is understood to have discussed in detail future problems the sector would face when non-oil producing and energy starved nations intensify drive on alternative energy sources. Speaking at a separate session, Ibrahim Al-Muhanna, Advisor to the Oil Minister pointed out though the oil demand would continue in coming years the organization was expected to face challenges that were not directly linked to the global oil industry.
Some of these challenges were "the return of some major economic powers to protectionist trade policies, the possibility of a currency war and continued sharp volatility in the prices of basic commodities, including petroleum as well as the unrealistic link between petroleum and the environment," he concluded.
Among these, the hydro-carbon sector has already experienced the lows of 2008 sparked of by global economic crisis as well as a fall in USD value. The challenges well go beyond the ones mentioned by Al-Muhanna as many countries outside the OPEC has started producing oil within their countries putting a tab on price control enjoyed by the oil bloc until now.
While keeping the challenges in perspective Naimi said the world would remain dependent on fossil fuels for at least 50 years yet would encourage other forms of energy. He informed the market was balanced, and a price range between $70-80 per barrel was fair to both consumers and producers.
By Jose Roy
tags:
opec so far bore 400bn bls – all set to pump another trillion
trade news
b2b portal
b2b marketing