Fuel shortage due to under-investment - Marican

09 June 2008 03:54  [Source: ICIS news]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (ICIS news)--The on-going global food, fuel and financial crises are due to chronic, long-term under-investment in the energy and agriculture sectors and inadequate protection for consumers and producers, Mohamed Hassan Marican, President & CEO of state-owned major PETRONAS, said on Monday.

“The emergence of these problems has undoubtedly been helped by the growing interdependence, volatily and complexity of the global economy,” he said at the 13th Annual Oil and Gas Conference (AOGC) in Kuala Lumpur.

The World Bank and World Food Programme have noted that millions of people in developing nations are being pushed into deeper poverty by the rising cost of living, deteriorating employment and incomes, collapsing house prices and retrechment, he added.

“In spite of the growing risk of an economic slowdown, global demand for oil in 2008 remains relatively unchanged at 87.5m bbls per day,” Marican said.

“Emerging economies in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa are expected to drive energy demand growth by 2.2% per annum up to 2030,” he said adding that demand growth has contributed to the historical high crude levels this year.

Marican said that despite the inadequate levels of investments to meet expected rising world demand and the lack of discoveries of new oil fields, technology and innovation has proved sufficient to meet ever-rising demands for oil.

“However, the industry is still playing catch-up. The intensifying pace of industry activitie is absorbing all the available capacity in the service sectors while the lack of adequate recruitment has resulted in severe shortage in experienced manpower,” Marican said.

“The industry is at a critical juncture that calls for innovation and bold solutions and the world is looking to us for direction on the way forward, he added.

The AOGC is an annual forum attended by participants of the oil and gas sectors and runs from 8 to 10 June.

By: Bohan Loh
+65 6780 4359

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