OPEC: Energy Needs Will Spike 50% By 2030

Report Says Supply Will Still Keep Pace With Demand

(AP)  World energy needs will spike by more than 50 percent by 2030 but adequate oil reserves, conservation and new methods of recovery mean supply will keep pace with demand, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday.

In its "World Look Outlook for 2008," OPEC also took issue with critics blaming present skyrocketing prices on the refusal of the organization to increase output, asserting that the weak U.S. dollar and market speculators were at least partly to blame.

And it suggested that decades of low prices led to under-investment, leaving the industry ill-prepared to sate the increased hunger for crude generated by strong economic growth.

Past "low prices were bad for the oil industry, and in the longer term they were also bad for consumer," said the summary of the 214-page report. At the same time, despite delivery bottlenecks, "there is enough oil to meet the world's needs for the foreseeable future," it added.

OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem El-Badri made the same point, in his foreword.

"Today, what is apparent is that oil supply and demand fundamentals are healthy," he wrote. "There is, and has been, more than enough supply to meet demand, and oil stocks in major consuming countries are at comfortable levels. This should point away from the direction of current price levels."

The report projected oil demand to rise by 29 million barrels a day from 2006 through 2030 to reach a daily 113 million barrels a day - a drop of 4 million barrels a day over its predictions last year, "due in part to the higher oil price assumption" - expectations that pricey petroleum is here to stay.

A large part of that projected demand will be met by new recovery and production procedures, meaning total demand for "conventional crude" - oil pumped from wells and other methods using present day technology - will not exceed 82 million barrels a day by 2030, said OPEC.

In comparison OPEC last month said it expects oil consumption this year to amount to an average of 86.9 million barrels per day.

"Oil has been in the leading position in supplying the world's growing energy needs for the past four decades, and there is a clear expectation that this will continue," said the report, estimating that crude and other fossil fuels will make up 85 percent of the world's energy mix in 2030. "Gas is expected to grow at fast rates, while coal retains its importance in the energy mix."

The generally optimistic tone of the report contrasted sharply with forecasts published last week by the International Energy Agency.

That report by the energy watchdog of the world's top industrialized nations predicted that oil supplies will remain tight at least for the next five years, despite record prices that have reduced demand. And IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said the world was in the grip of an "oil shock," similar to once in the 1970s and then the 1980s - but with no simple fix this time.

In its monthly forecast Thursday, the IEA slightly raised its forecast for global oil demand this year and said growth would continue in 2009 thanks to demand in developing countries.

The report came as the benchmark contract for crude was trading at above $136 a barrel but about 6.4 percent below last week's record high.

[rushman71]

Past "low prices were bad for the oil industry, and in the longer term they were also bad for consumer," said the summary of the 214-page report.

Bad for the consumer? ***!!! Sounds to me that it was bad for the OPEC big shots. Y''all got your limos, yaghts, 4 or 5 mansions, everything that makes you happy, while the "consumer" or shall I say the lower and middle class consumer have to ride buses, car pools, mopeds, bicycles, or use of their own two feet just to get buy on making OPEC happy!!! Isn''t life just great?

[missingamerica]

"World energy needs will spike by more than 50 percent by 2030 but adequate oil reserves, conservation and new methods of recovery mean supply will keep pace with demand"

lollll...ya, if I was a pusher I would want to make sure my addicts didn''t find a new drug before I''d cleaned them out financially, too.

Because I would know that as long as I am their major supplier, I have the money to develop weapons to enforce my rules and the economic leverage to be a major power in their lives...

[whitemale08]

Not in the U.S. Obama is going to free us from oil once and for all !!!

Oil is Serfdom.

Alternative Energy is Freedom !!!
193 days till this nightmare is over!

[whitemale08]

Junkyard dog Rush Limbaugh is totally WRONG when he says that oil is the lifeblood of our nation and it gives us freedom.

What a bunch of garbage!!!

Oil is the main drag on our economy and it keeps us in serfdom because we have to pay for it with our hard earned wages and go to war for it.

How stupid!!!

Thank goodness Obama knows the difference!

193 days till FREEDOM !!!

Look and stare at freedom in the face www.aircar.com

[frootloop47]

OPEC: Energy Needs Will Spike 50% By 2030!
------------------------------------------
Spike! What the freak are they doing now!

There you have it folks. We better get our Energy feces consolidated by 2030!

[frootloop47]

OPEC: Energy Needs Will Spike 50% By 2030!
---------------------------------
---------
Spike! What the freak are they doing now!

There you have it folks. We better get our Energy feces consolidated by 2030!
---------------------------------------
Should have done it back in the 1970s!!!

[newsjunky5]

So much for the "shortage."
Pundits are beginning to say the price spike is too big to be caused by speculation, as well, which always existed before the spike anyway.
The only reasonable answer is that Big Oil really acts like a monopoly. They set the price and that''s it. The only counter pressure can come from Congress or the President. They investigate, make veiled threats to break up the monopoly/legislate oil a little more and the oil companies cool it for a while. That''s the way it''s always gone in the past.
Until Congress was Republican for a time and nothing was done by them, the White House is full of Big Oil people. They certainly aren''t going to threaten antitrust action against themselves.
We only started hauling the oil executives before Congress after Democrats took control. And there is no teeth to this because the Republicans are barely a minority and HAVE blocked action that would keep Big Oil in line.
The answer is to get politicians who aren''t in Big Oil''s pocket. This would be the Democrats. I hope they don''t sell out too. But I don''t see them doing that as a group.

[newsjunky5]

If the seperate oil companies aren''t setting the price together, why aren''t some of them producing it much cheaper than others?

[a8151947]

If they lie any more they could run for office in The USA.Obama is going to free us from oil once and for all !!! This is a bigger lie. Qsama wont do any thing but make money for him self, and rest of his botheres

[whiskyrocker]

Another reason to raise crude oil prices.

[forthepeopl1]

GO AND READ ABOUT THE OIL FEILDS THE GOVERNMENT IS HIDDING FROM AMERICANS..ALREADY TO PRODUCE ALREADY DRILL AND HAS BENN FOR OVER 40 YEARS NOW..

THEN CALL YOUR REPS AND SAY WHY.

GOGGLE GAS PRICE MANIPULATION AND GULL ISLAND OIL.

THERE MORE GAS AND OIL THAN ALL OF SAUDI AND RUSSIA TOGETHER..

[e-mail]

[nskduke2]

Another challenge our country is going to face in the near feature. Well I''m not worried because by 2030 we will become free from OPEC. I hate people who blame Bush for what''s going on this country. I blame congress because they are at Washington DC from Monday-Thursday and they accomplish nothing. The truth is congress lacks communication among each other. They never take time to talk to each other about problems this country is facing. Lack of communication=poor government.

[kuei12]

Here''s a news flashe. Energy cost already spikes 100% in 2 years.

[u-r-right]

I hope by 2030 we won''t need OPEC

[ajmarine111]

Should have done it back in the 1970s!!!


Posted by frootloop47 at 11:56 AM : Jul 10, 2008


I''ve been saying that for years, now the governments are wringing their hands and saying "How could this have happend? We didn''t see this coming".

[petro49l]

Why spend so much time on petroleum? Hydrogen is a fine type of fuel. Industrial solar and wind fields produce a staggering amount of electricity. Ocean waves breaking to the shore can be used technically as a source of power. Saudi sludge is not the ultimate form energy.

[petro49l]

The Saudis are a group of craven homosexuals. No one needs to pay them $200 for a barrel of oil. It does not matter what George W. Bush says about it. A world monopoly should not be respected.

[rudy654-2009]

I notice that the airline industry itself is calling attention to the problem with speculators, yet not one article on CBS here deals with this problem. The speculators are indeed the main culprits, but all we hear is chirping. What gives CBS???

[frankbowers]

gw bush bombed iraq due to them wishing to horde the oil why not bomb saudi, it appears he lied to lus before or is lying now I guess he lied then and now but the neo-con''s have no problem with their deserter hero doing as he wishes with cheney. I wonder which of the homesexualgroups they are a family of. Frank Bowers.

[xrucifer]

This is TOTAL baloney. Big oil is desperate to convince you and I that they hold the future when it has become very obvious that their days of economic dominance are numbered. When congress gets the balls, they will ban new gasoline engine autos. Electric power train technology is advancing daily. When you can buy a car that plugs into your household electric grid, instead of gasoline for the same price...guess who looses? These changes are inevitable and unstoppable. However, Big Oil has their propaganda machine going into overdrive to convince us that electric cars will never work and that we will need them 50% more in 20 years...PUCKIE!

Add to this, each home will have it''s own separate electric generation technologies... new high efficiency low cost solar panels, ultra capacitors, hydrogen cells etc. even the utilities become irrelevant. We will all make our own electricity.

[xrucifer]

Solar farms are a boondoggle too. The utilities want to put this stuff way out away from the cities so we can continue to pay them to pipe it to our homes. Each domestic building can now generate much of it''s own electric power at competitive prices. Solar was admittedly too expensive up until the recent tech breakthroughs in solar panels efficiency and affordability. This will soon reach the consumer who can simply plug their car into the socket go to bed and take off in the morning.
No offshore drilling required.

Hydrogen is a scam too....don''t you get it...Big Oil is behind this. THEY WANT TO KEEP YOU COMING INTO THEIR STATIONS AND PUTTING THAT HOSE INTO YOUR CAR AND KEEP COLLECTING YOUR MONEY AS THE PRICE OF HYDROGEN SUDDENLY SKYROCKETS.

The days of Big Oil are numbered! Don''t believe their lies. They will do or say anything to keep that pipeline to your wallet open.

BTW: one of the lies vectored is "electric cars only have a 280 mile range" gee my Toyota only has a 250 mile range! "what if you run out of charge on the road in to boonies?" Hmmmm. nobody runs out of gas?

[mcv57]

Don''t worry folks, the Bushwacker and GOP will have everyone working by then, its called the DRAFT PROGRAM - military is just waiting for Iran to start WWIII.

[libsluv2spit]

Don''''t worry folks, the Bushwacker and GOP will have everyone working by then, its called the DRAFT PROGRAM - military is just waiting for Iran to start WWIII.

Posted by mcv57 at 01:42 PM : Jul 11, 2008
+ report abuse

***********

i would not be suprised that after 22 years in the future..you would still be on welfare and you will still be whinning like a litte bi*tch blaming the present president of that time for not pampering your arse..