IEA warns non-Opec oil could peak in two years

Oil production in non-Opec countries is set to peak within the next two years, leaving the world increasingly dependent on supplies from the cartel of exporting nations, according to one of the world’s leading energy experts.

Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said that falling production from key regions such as the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico would leave international oil companies such as Shell and BP increasingly sidelined at the expense of national oil companies, such as Saudi Aramco.


The North Sea is one of the fastest-declining energy-rich regions in the world, with output falling by an average of 7.5 per cent a year since 2002.