IEA Calls for Enhanced Upstream Investment to Support Global Energy Security
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has stressed the need for expanded upstreaminvestments in existing oil and gas fields to support global energy security.
The executive directorof the Agency, Fatih Birol, stated this at the CERAWeek by S&P Globalconference in Houston.
The IEA famously saidin 2021 that, no investments in new oil and gas fields are needed if the worldhas a chance to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
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The Paris-based Agencyhas repeatedly said, since 2021 that the world not need and new long lead-timeconventional oil and gas projects or coal mines approved after 2023 as thesurge in clean energy deployment could lead to peak fossil fuel demand this decade.
This decade, the IEA,created in response to the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, has veered towardadvocating for and promoting clean energy investments and transition and hasoften expressed opinions that net zero wouldn’t be achieved with investments innew oil and gas production.
These opinions,alongside forecasts that peak oil demand will happen this decade, have drawnharsh criticism from OPEC, which has repeatedly slammed the IEA for‘dangerous’ forecasts that would hurt consumers and ‘only lead to energyvolatility on a potentially unprecedented scale.’
At CERAWeek, the IEA’sBirol said, ‘I want to make it clear … there would be a need for investment,especially to address the decline in the existing fields.’ There is a need foroil and gas upstream investments, full stop, Birol added. Of the $400 billionannual investment in oil and gas, $360 billion goes into offsetting the declinein existing fields, according to the IEA official.
Earlier this year, theformer chief of the IEA’s oil industry and markets department, Neil Atkinsonsaid, the IEA is producing potentially “dangerously wrong” reports due toits marked pro-transition bias.
Atkinson authoreda report in partnership with Mark P. Mills, the head of the think tank theNational Center for Energy Analytics, calling on the IEA to focus on itsoriginal purpose, which was monitoring of oil market developments and industryoutlook.
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