Energy, Environment, and Social Development: The Role of R&D in Energy Sustainability - Global Oil and Gas Supply Security and Future Energy Mix

Abstract

President's column A key component of sustainability is human lifestyle—meeting not just the basics, but for all people to have the opportunity to grow, develop, and prosper. Unquestionably, access to energy is a key component of achieving this goal. Having an adequate, reliable, affordable, environmentally-cleaner and uninterrupted supply of energy is crucial. Despite the calls to immediately cease using fossil fuels, hydrocarbon resources are essential to support the global economy. We cannot achieve a sustainable world in the long term without access to oil and gas. Currently, more than 50% of world energy demand is met by oil and gas. The difficult and yet-to-be-answered questions in the energy industry are the timing of oil and gas depletion and the energy mix afterward. Will oil remain as the primary source of energy at the end of this century, especially in the transportation sector which currently consumes from 75 to 80% of the oil produced? Will gas remain as a primary source of energy for power generation and petrochemicals by the end of this century? Even with renewable energy growing by 400% or more, when will there be enough of these sources to replace oil and gas? Will they be practical for transportation? No one disagrees that oil and gas are depletable energy sources, and that we must find other sources of energy to replace them if mankind’s lifestyle on Earth is to be maintained or improved for hundreds, or I may say, thousands of years to come. However, knowing precisely when this will happen is quite challenging. The oil and gas industry long ago embraced the challenge of finding and producing enough resources to meet growing world demand. Replacing what is produced each year isn’t enough; as demand grows, production capacity must grow, which means discovering more resources. We’ve met that challenge. How? By making enormous investments in research and development (R&D). There is absolutely no doubt that the last few decades’ R&D efforts have reduced uncertainties on the exploration side and have increased recovery efficiency. Thanks to newly developed technologies, fields that were not economically feasible before are now being developed. We’ve learned how to economically and safely produce tight and unconventional resources, and those in hostile environments. All of this has resulted in significant reserves addition and recovery increases.