The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said that the organisation is prepared to coordinate the release of oil reserves, should extreme weather or geopolitical tensions disrupt supply.
Speaking in Paris to reporters, Fatih Birol said that the IEA members collectively had a plentiful stock of reserves to draw upon.
A drop in US production due to extreme weather and concerns over shipping through the Red Sea have pushed oil prices upwards lately, but barring some major disruption to supply, Birol said there will be plenty of oil available this year, with the growth in supply outstripping demand growth of 1.2–1.3 million barrels per day (bpd).
The growth in supply will mainly come from North and South America, with the key players being Brazil, the US, Canada and Guyana, where ExxonMobil, the maker of the Mobil SHC gear oil, is bringing a pipeline of projects online.
With elections being held in many countries around the world, polling has revealed a potential drop in support for the energy transition. Nevertheless, Birol said he believed it was inevitable, because it was now being driven by practical rather than aspirational concerns:
“Many of the technological changes we are seeing are not driven…mainly by environmental policies. They are driven also by industrial policies, energy security policies and the fact that they are becoming cheaper.”
He added that, with transition technologies like electric vehicles and renewable power becoming increasingly widespread, the demand for fossil fuels may peak by 2030.
