The idea of peak oil is “vanishing as a concept” according to a leading academic.
John Scrimgeour is director of the Energy Institute at Aberdeen University, speaking at the Future of Energy conference.
He said: “Peak oil is vanishing as a concept.
“In the 70s ands 80s we were always talking about coming to the end of oil because we thought we would run out and that doesn’t seem to be happening.
“There’s enough oil in the world now for estimates of what we will need until 2050 from known resources.”
He added that while energy demand is set to increase rapidly, the challenge is keeping oil competitive compared to other energy sources.
“In the next 20 years it looks like there will be something like a 30% increase in demand for energy, with most of that coming from the developing world.
“The good news in that is gas is increasing its market share.
“My sense of it is that we’re never going to run out of oil. We were always limited by the technology, which has advanced dramatically over my career.
“We’re now finding oil in places that we never imagined we would back in the 70s.
“With current technology, we have enough oil to double what we need until 2050 at current rates of usage.
“The driver now is going to be to keep the cost of oil and gas down to compete. You can see renewables is starting to come into a place where, at least in electricity generation, is competitive.”
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