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UPDATE 2-'Accumulating risks' to world energy supply-US NPC

Thu Jul 5, 2007 4:36pm EDT
 
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By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) - The world is not running out of crude oil and natural gas but there are "accumulating risks" to securing global supplies through 2030, a high-level board of U.S. oil company executives found in a report obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

Those risks include "political hurdles, infrastructure requirements and availability of trained work force," according to the study by the U.S. National Petroleum Council, conducted at the behest of U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman.

The NPC, whose members include executives of big oil companies like ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Chevron Corp. (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), will present the study at its July 18 meeting.

The council, formed in 1947 at the request of President Harry Truman, is chaired by Lee Raymond, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil.

When Bodman called for the study in October 2005, he asked the council to study the concept of "peak oil," whether the globe was running out of hydrocarbons.

"Perspectives vary widely on the ability of supply to keep pace with growing world demand for oil and natural gas," Bodman wrote at the time.

In a draft letter to Bodman outlining its findings, the group says, "The world is not running out of energy resources, but there are accumulating risks to continuing expansion of oil and natural gas production from the conventional sources relied upon historically."  Continued...

 

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