Matt Simmons: Call for action on energy output
Aberdeen Press & Journal, March 1
Ian Forsyth, Energy Editor
Matt Simmons, at yesterday's event at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre
THE president of US-based energy bank Simmons & Company International warned yesterday that the world would need every form of alternative energy that worked.
Matt Simmons was giving a keynote address at the inaugural Creating An All-Energy Future conference and exhibition in Aberdeen.
He said the world was out of spare energy capacity for electricity, natural gas and oil.
"That is why energy prices have suddenly jumped so high. It is not merely a spike in prices."
Mr Simmons told the 200-plus delegates that, over the next decade, we must embark on one of the costliest energy spending projects in the history of man to rebuild the current energy infrastructure that allows 180million barrels of daily energy consumption.
At the same time, energy output must be expanded by at least 30% within one decade and then never be allowed to stay static again.
Mr Simmons said that, in such a world, trillions of dollars would be spent.
"I am calling this need an energy Marshall Plan. Key to this plan is an urgent need to develop every form of energy.
"Some are not going to work, so all must be pushed forward and cost will be enormous. Getting the job done will take a long time. It is hard for me to see how it can be accomplished in less than a decade," he said.
Mr Simmons told the gathering at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre that, by 1980, total energy demand exceeded 145million barrels per day. He said he thought it was relevant that almost 30 years had elapsed since the last giant oilfield that could produce more than one million barrels per day (bpd) was found. He said only a handful had been able to reach 500,000bpd.
He said there was not a single oil and gasfield now being developed that could produce more than 300,000bpd.
When the entire energy base was closing in on 200million barrels a day these were merely drops in the energy bucket.
Mr Simmons thought nuclear energy had to come back as we tackled the energy Marshall Plan, but he added that we had no better idea of how to dispose of spent nuclear waste than we did 30 years ago.
He said that, as the process of correcting our energy problems began, there was a grave risk that we create a severe conflict between angry consumers anxious to preserve their lifestyles and environmentalists passionate about stopping any new energy project.
Rob Gueterbock, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace, told delegates that climate change was a priority campaign for the environmental group. He said that oil companies should switch investment in fossil fuels to renewable energy. |
