Press Quotes

18 November 2008, Dowjones Business News
Speaking at a conference in Oslo, the IEA's Fatih Birol said expectations the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will produce an ever increasing share of global oil makes "every drop of oil we can get from Norway very, very important," in retaining a diverse energy mix. Birol said the IEA's analysis of the world's 800 largest fields, representing two third of both existing reserves and current production, didn't give "a very optimistic message." "Non conventional oil will increase, mainly from Canada. But non-OPEC production is in difficulty. The share of OPEC production will in future be a bigger share of the total," Birol added. Strong growth in world demand coupled with a sharp decline in existing fields are the two factors will underpin a need for more oil by 2030 than today, Birol said. Output needs to rise by 64 million barrels a day by 2030 to meet demand growth and offset decline, he said. That's equivalent to six times Saudi Arabia's capacity, or 27 times Norway's.

17 November 2008, The Age
When the world's environment ministers gather in the Polish city of Poznan next month to discuss the new global climate deal, the Federal Government will announce its long-awaited short-term targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. This will give the world an opportunity to assess the scope of Australia's climate change credentials and ambition. The latest World Energy Outlook from the conservative International Energy Agency underlines the fundamental choice before the Government: introduce strong targets and policies to help stimulate multitrillion-dollar investments in creating a clean energy system or, in the words of the energy agency, face "catastrophic and irreversible damage to the global climate".

15 November 2008, Time Magazine
But the respite could be brief, according to the International Energy Agency's analysts. The Paris-based organization's annual World Energy Outlook, released on Wednesday, predicts that oil prices will start a steep climb soon, and by 2030 will settle around $120 a barrel - more than double this week's price - as producers face rocketing costs of equipment such as drills and rigs, and are forced into the increasingly expensive business of extracting oil from less accessible fields, many of them far out at sea.

14 November 2008, Bloomberg
The International Energy Agency warned that slower investment in new oil projects by OPEC member countries in the aftermath of the global economic slowdown may cause an energy-supply crunch in the next two decades. "Many projects will be delayed because of the economic crisis,"' Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the Paris-based adviser to 28 nations, said today in an interview with Bloomberg News in Tokyo. "The biggest concern I have is that there may be a supply disruption in the years ahead when the global economy and oil demand recover."

14 November 2008, Arab News
When Fatih Birol announced that he and his team, while compiling their much awaited annual analysis of the energy world - The World Energy Outlook - would also undertake field by field analysis of the historical production trends of 800 major oil producing fields of the world - on which the world is dependent for its energy supplies - every one was taken by surprise.

13 November 2008, The Economist
The world will use more renewable sources to produce electricity.

13 November 2008, The Wall Street Journal
Production at the world's oil fields will decline faster in coming years, putting more pressure on future oil supplies, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday. As current fields fade with age and the industry moves offshore and into smaller fields, decline rates will accelerate, the agency found, and more investment will be required to make up the shortfall.

13 November 2008, The Times
Long-term global temperatures are on course to rise by 6C (43F) unless radical changes are adopted in the way that the world produces energy, the International Energy Agency (IAE) said yesterday. In its 2008 World Energy Outlook, the IEA said that if present trends continued, greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas would be driven up inexorably, putting the world on track for a doubling in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by the end of the century.

13 November 2008, ABC News
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that massive investments are needed in the oil industry and alternative power sources if the world is to avoid a shortage of fuel. In its outlook for 2008, the agency predicts that demand from India and China will cause the price of oil to reach $US200 a barrel by 2030. The agency's chief economist, Dr Fatih Birol, has told ABC Radio's AM program that even though prices have fallen recently the era of cheap oil is over. "Once the economy recovers and the demand bounces back, we think about 2010, 2011, we may be caught by surprise and this will be a nasty surprise, which would mean that we can see prices which may be even higher than what we have seen last summer," he said.

12 November 2008, Associated Press
The International Energy Agency on Wednesday called for massive investment in producing more oil to prevent a supply squeeze in coming years, saying energy demand will rise 1.6 percent a year on average between 2006 and 2030. The IEA's base scenario for energy demand has fallen due to the global economic slowdown and higher oil prices, but the agency stressed that a delay in spending on new projects due to the credit crisis could lead to a "supply crunch that could choke economic recovery."