Shell boss pumps up students

Firm to add 500 jobs every year, CEO tells U of S students

…”We will never run out of oil and gas. That’s not the issue,” he said. “The issue is not supply, the issue is cost and environmental impact.

“In Western Canada, the resources are so big that I wouldn’t even think about how long they could last,” he said.

While Mather says the run-up in oil and gas prices helped to push his company’s ranking in two years from 23rd-largest producer to ninth and to give it $3 billion in cash profit last year, he says investment analysts aren’t viewing Shell Canada’s prospects as dependent on $63-a-barrel oil.

He says he expects prices will back off today’s peak as they always have in past energy price cycles. He explained to students that high prices invariably result in more spending on exploration, which increases supply. As well, high prices drive down demand.

He said the Athabasca tarsands and their energy potential were legendary but not considered economic to recover 35 years ago. “Technology changes, demand goes up and suddenly the time has come. So I don’t think we have hit peak oil.”

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix