Western oil companies doomed to become ‘niche players’ – IEA economist

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) – Western oil companies are doomed to become minor players in the sector, the head economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, predicted.

‘Western oil companies are going through an identity crisis,’ Birol said in the German daily Die Welt today.

‘Enormous reserves still exist but mainly in the Middle East. And they do not have access to them,’ she said.

As a result, ‘Western companies will become niche players in the oil market because they will have no more prospects for development,’ she said.