(FE)
The record two-year investment drop in oil industry due to weak prices may lead to a potential shortage of global oil supplies in three years, the International Energy Agency warned today. According to the latest five-year oil market forecast by IEA, global oil supply could struggle to keep pace with demand after 2020, risking a sharp increase in prices, unless new projects are approved soon, said Fatih Birol, Executive Director of IEA at CERAWeek conference. The global picture appears comfortable for the next three years but supply growth slows considerably after that, according to ‘Oil 2017’, the IEA’s market analysis and forecast report previously known as the medium-term oil market report.
The demand and supply trends point to a tight global oil market, with spare production capacity in 2022 falling to a 14-year low. In the next a few years, oil supply will grow in the US, Canada, Brazil and elsewhere but this growth could stall by 2020 if the record two-year investment slump of 2015 and 2016 is not reversed. While investments in the US shale play are picking up strongly, early indications of global spending for 2017 are not encouraging, it said. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Birol discussed ways to work closely in energy sphere.
