ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is optimistic about energy demand and sees underinvestment in the sector as a risk to energy security, its secretary-general said on Monday Haitham al Ghais at the Adipec exhibition in Abu Dhabi.
Haitham al Ghais stressed the importance of continuing investments in oil and gas and deemed calls to stop investing in the sector counterproductive.
“We consider that oil demand is still quite resilient this year, as it was last year,” he said, specifying that OPEC forecasts demand growth of more than 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) from one year to the next.
He added that investments in the sector were important for energy security.
“We are running out of spare capacity, we have said this many times and this requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders to understand the importance of investing in this sector,” he continued.
The Emirati Minister of Energy, Suhail al Mazrouei, agreed, saying that investments are necessary from national and international oil companies.
“And these investments require the financial world to be ready to finance oil and gas,” he said.
According to Suhail al Mazrouei, the UAE is on track to increase its oil production capacity to five million bpd by 2027, from 4.2 million bpd currently.
(Reporting Maha El Dahan, Yousef Saba and Alexander Cornwell; written by Nadine Awadalla and Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)
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