The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says investments of $11.8 trillion will be required between 2021 and 2045 in the upstream, midstream and downstream oil sectors.

Mohammad Barkindo, OPEC secretary general disclosed this in his remark on Wednesday at the 23rd World Petroleum Congress (WPC) being held in Houston, U. S.

Mr Barkindo spoke during a plenary session, ‘Energy Transition: Scenarios for the Future’.

He said OPEC’s World Oil Outlook (WOO) 2021 showed that upstream capital expenditure fell by around 30 per cent in 2020 as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, this follows drops of 27 per cent in 2015 and 2016.

“Investments have not recovered since a global level of $700 billion was witnessed in 2014, and they were at only half this level in 2020. The return of investments is a core objective of the Declaration of Cooperation between OPEC and non OPEC producers, which has done so much to return balance and stability to the market since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020,” the OPEC boss noted.

If the necessary investments were not made, he explained, it could have knock-on implications, and leave long-term scars, particularly for security of supply, affecting not only producers, but consumers too.

According to the OPEC secretary general, the WOO 2021 also sees global energy demand expanding by 28 per cent by 2045 which underlines the need to have a holistic view of the energy sector, and appreciate what each energy source can offer.

“For oil and gas, some believe that these industries should not be part of the energy future, that they should be consigned to the ‘dustbin of history’, and that the future is one that can be dominated by renewables and electric vehicles,” he told the gathering. “It is important to state clearly that the science does not tell us this, and the statistics related to the blight of energy poverty do not tell us this either.”

He further mentioned that “renewables are coming of age, with wind and solar expanding quickly, but – even by 2045 – in our WOO they are” only estimated to make up around 24 per cent of the global energy mix.

(NAN)