Sustaining global gas demand will require $4.3tr in investment by 2030

Total investments of $4.3 trillion are needed in the coming 5 years to keep up with fast-growing demand for natural gas and make up for a lost decade of underinvestment, Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest and largest private upstream oil and gas company, told ministers and energy industry leaders in Vienna.

- Staff Reporter, Gulf Today

The world must invest more to maintain and grow the current energy systems particularly in the developing world where demand is growing fastest, Jafar said in his remarks on the opening day of the 9th OPEC International Seminar.

“The world faces a massive energy challenge, with demand set to grow at the fastest pace in decades,” Jafar said. “The era of renewables growing at the expense of other energy sources is over—now, all forms of energy must expand together. We need an ‘and, and’ strategy: gas, oil, and renewables must all grow to meet surging global needs.”

Jafar made his comments on a high-level roundtable session titled “Policies and Regulations: A Just and Realistic Energy Future,” which discussed the need for sound and reliable energy policy with respect to sustainability. He was joined in the session by Tengku Muhammad Taufik the Chief Executive Officer of Petronas; Rovshan Najaf, President of SOCAR; and Francesco La Camera the Director-General of IRENA based in Abu Dhabi.

The developing world is where most energy growth will come in the future, Jafar said, because it is where population growth, urbanisation and air condition will require the most new resources. More than 1.2 billion people in the developing world lack access to reliable electricity, a gap that has actually grown in recent years, he said.