Oil producers’ cartel OPEC predicts a worldwide oil related infrastructure investment boom of $7.5 trillion (£4.6) to 2035 as oil demand continues to rise.
OPEC’s 2013 World Oil Outlook increases its forecast for long term oil demand, largely driven by rapid economic growth in Asia, which it says means rising demand for infrastructure from production plants and refineries to pipelines.
OPEC, a group of 12 major oil producing nations that produces about one third of world oil supply, says it will have to produce 2.6M barrels a day (b/d) more crude oil than it had previously estimated, which raises its long term production estimate to 37M b/d by 2035.
Total world demand will grow by 20M b/d to 108M b/d by 2035, OPEC says. Total global demand for energy will grow by 52% over the same period. A major reason for the growth forecast is said to be increased car ownership in China. OPEC had previously thought that poor infrastructure in China would be a constraint, but has revised this view following recent huge infrastructure investments throughout China.
Some 64% of the forecast rise in car ownership will come from Asia and there will be more cars on the road in developing countries than in all of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and development countries – the developed world.
OPEC dismisses fears that oil stocks will run short. Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri says in the report that there is no shortage of oil and ‘resources are plentiful’. He added: “Increasing global oil demand is supported by an expanding diversity of supply sources: crude oil, including tight oil, NGL’s, oil sands, gas-and-coal-to-liquids, and biofuels.”
Photo: Martin Gita
