OPEC and oil exporting countries react to Alternative Feuls

AP PHOTO/RONALD ZAK
Mohamed Al Hamli, president of the OPEC and minister of energy for the United Arab Emirates.
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISTANBUL, Turkey - The president of OPEC said Wednesday that repeated calls by industrialized countries to reduce dependence on oil could lead to a reduction in supplies from the cartel.
‘‘Today’s policy announcements could translate into scarcity of supplies in the future,’’ Mohamed Al Hamli, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said at an energy conference. He noted that OPEC is made up of developing nations with limited resources, and it would be a ‘‘waste of badly needed funds’’ to invest heavily in oil production if demand is unclear.
‘‘We need to have some sort of transparency to know what the plans are,’’ he said. ‘‘The security of demand is a key issue for us.’’
Fossil fuels currently provide more than 90 percent of the world’s commercial energy needs, according to OPEC. The United States and the European Union want to use more renewable and alternative fuels in order to reduce their dependence on foreign oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Al Hamli, who is also oil minister of the United Arab Emirates, said he welcomed diversity in fuel sources, but said fuels derived from petroleum have become cleaner over the years. He said oil was a force for alleviating poverty because many people lack access to modern fuels for cooking and heating.
He predicted that global oil demand would rise from the 2005 level of 83 million barrels a day to 118 million barrels a day by 2030. Much of that growth in demand is expected to be in the transportation sector, and Al Hamli said China’s huge appetite for oil had ‘‘taken everybody by surprise.’’
OPEC and the European Union, meeting in Vienna last week, said a workshop on the oil refining sector, including the implications of biofuel use, would take place in Brussels at the end of this year or early next.
European officials acknowledge that they will be dependent on oil for a large part of their energy needs in coming years. But they plan to make major changes in the long term in order to reduce the bloc’s contribution to global warming.
By 2020, Europe wants to generate a fifth of all energy from renewables - such as wind and biofuels - while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20 percent.
‘‘There is just a brief window during which we can deal with this problem,’’ said Andris Piebalgs, the EU’s energy commissioner.
For the West, a sense of urgency about the threat of climate change is coupled with the uncertainty of securing energy from nations and regions, including Nigeria and the Middle East, that are prone to unrest. There is also concern about deepening European dependence on energy from Russia, which cut gas to Ukraine, and by extension customers farther west, in a political dispute in early 2006.