Conflicting 'peak oil' views at Davos

The head of Saudi oil giant Aramco has tried to ease international concerns over dwindling stocks of oil.

Khalid al Falih, Aramco’s chairman and chief executive, hit out at ‘misleading’ rhetoric that the world was weaning itself off fossil fuels, saying this did not give producers confidence to keep investing in production.

The head of the world’s biggest producer company was speaking at a World Economic Forum session on the global energy outlook in Davos. ‘We don’t believe in peak oil,’ he told reporters later.

But other petrol bosses remained unconvinced. ‘The problem of peak oil remains,’ said Thierry Desmarest, chairman of French giant Total. Mr Desmarest said it would be very difficult to raise oil production worldwide above 95 million barrels a day, which is 10% more than today’s level.

RTE Business