Total sees peak oil output around 2020
RELATED NEWS:
Total sees peak oil output around 2020
France's Total estimates global oil production will peak around 2020 if output growth continues at current levels and has advised governments to cool demand to avoid a supply crunch, its chief executive said.
"The capacity of raising (oil) production is a real challenge ... if we stay with this type of production growth our impression is that peak production could be reached around 2020," Thierry Desmarest told the World Gas Conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
If demand growth was cut to 1 percent from the nearly 2 percent experienced in recent years, the point of peak output could be postponed by 10 years, the French oil major's CEO added.
"We say to governments, it's urgent to take action plans to reduce oil demand growth," Desmarest said.
Desmarest later told a news conference that Total had advised the French government and the European Union to try to limit demand growth, adding that the company's comments had been heard with interest.
Oil executives tend to deride the notion of peak oil, the point at which production starts to decline. Figures like BP Plc's Chief Executive John Browne usually insist there is plenty of oil left and say some previous predictions of peak oil have turned out to be false.
Nonetheless, most analysts say the increasing difficulty and expense the industry faces in raising production will ensure oil prices do not return to historical low levels for many years, if at all.
Dr. Sohbet Karbuz comments:
In fact Thierry Desmarest had already made a similar statement back in March 2005 to the Energies (Total's corporate Magazine, No.7)"As for the much-discussed oil-production peak, some observers see it occurring by 2010 while others give us until 2040. I tend to think that oil production will peak by about 2020-2025, provided that we can limit growth in demand to about 1.5 million barrels per year. I think gas production will peak about fifteen years later than oil, probably around 2040."
Back in 2003 Yves-Louis Darricarre has also stated in the Total's Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2003 that "Although expert opinion is divided on the issue, here at Total we put the watershed oil production peak at around 2020 and 2030"
