KUWAIT: OAPEC Secretary-General Jamal Al-Loughani stressed that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to greatly outweigh their potential side effects, calling for pumping new investments into fossil fuel projects, especially oil and natural gas, to ensure reliable and affordable energy in the future. This came in a statement to KUNA Thursday on issuing the second quarterly report of the organization’s general secretariat for the year 2024.
He stated that the oil and natural gas sector is expected to account for about 53.7 percent of the global energy mix by 2045, according to OPEC estimates. Al-Loughani also noted that the past few years’ events, especially the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, have proven that the trend toward energy transformation away from fossil fuels cannot continue steadily and on a large scale, even in advanced economies.
Carbon emissions from fossil fuels can be significantly reduced by enhancing and supporting investment, innovation, and continuous development in clean technologies such as carbon capture and storage technology while focusing on increasing energy efficiency, he added. The OAPEC chief hoped that this report would provide continued support to future energy policymakers in the Organization’s member states, noting that the performance of the global economy witnessed stable growth during the second quarter of this year.
Al-Loughani noted that emerging Asian market economies continued to be the main driver of the global economy, proving their resilience despite global monetary tightening, expecting the global economy to grow by 3.3 percent next year, slightly higher than the prevailing rate in 2024 of 3.2 percent. He said continued strong demand from refiners in the Asia-Pacific region helped absorb available supplies in the Atlantic Basin amid refinery maintenance in Europe.
Oil prices fell during May and June, affected by the noticeable fluctuations in speculative activity in the futures market, which witnessed an increase in selling operations, changes in expectations regarding the market prospects in the near term, and a decrease in the variance in gasoline and diesel prices between major trading centers, he added. Moreover, Al-Loughani said that the availability of crude oil supplies in northwest Europe, supplies from the US Gulf Coast, and the rise in US oil inventories contributed to the decline in prices during the first half of June.
He pointed out that the average spot prices of the OPEC basket of crudes every quarter witnessed an increase of 4.3 percent compared to the previous quarter to reach $85.3 per barrel, while Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate futures recorded quarterly gains of 3.9 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively. He stressed that global oil supplies of crude oil and natural gas liquids witnessed an increase of only 0.1 percent compared to the previous quarter to reach 102.2 million barrels per day.
The developments in the global oil market cast a shadow over the levels of economic performance in OAPEC member states during the second quarter of this year, as the growth witnessed in the levels of output in the oil sectors of those countries continued to slow down, he added. Al-Loughani expected the slowdown to continue in the short term, coinciding with the decision of OPEC Plus countries to extend voluntary production cuts, which may harm oil revenues in OPEC member countries, which are among the most important sources of national income and contribute to achieving sustainable development. — KUNA