SINGAPORE: The world will remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels for the next 40 years, Shell’s chief executive said Tuesday, as a massive US oil spill cast a cloud over the industry.
Despite the upsurge in alternative sources, fossil fuels, including oil, natural gas and coal, will remain the dominant source for meeting increasing world energy demand until at least 2050, said chief executive Peter Voser.
"Energy demand will double between now and 2050. We have currently roughly 80 percent of fossil resources delivering the energy demand today.
We still see this at around 60 percent by 2050," said the chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch energy giant.
His comments come as rival BP is under intense pressure over an oil spill from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which has given US authorities pause for thought over future drilling plans.
Alternative and renewable energy sources will only garner 30 to 40 percent of market share within the same time-frame, Voser told a news conference in Singapore, a major hub for the oil trade, where he attended the opening of a petrochemical complex.
"There will be continuous need for fossil resources over the next decades… in order to actually allow renewables and other energy sources the time to technically develop, commercialise and build market share."
Voser said that giving alternative energy sources time to become efficient and economically viable will, in the long term, help mitigate any adverse environmental impact caused by the use of fossil fuels.
"In a way we deliver more energy at a cost which is significantly lower for the environment," Voser said.
Voser was in Singapore to attend the opening of the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, Shell’s biggest petrochemicals investment worldwide to date.
A spokesman for the company would not disclose the investment value, saying only that a project of this size would cost "several billion dollars".
