Global Energy Demand to Soar By More Than 50 Percent By 2030: IEA

global energy demand to soar by more than 50 percent by 2030: IEA

PARIS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) — The global energy demand will soar by more than 50 percent by 2030, amounting to 16.3 billion tons of oil, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Monday in its 2005 World Energy Outlook.

By 2030, the global demand for oil and coal will increase by 1.4 percent every year, while the annual demand for natural gas will grow by 2.1 percent. If the energy output does not largely increase by that time, the price of energy will rise sharply, estimated the IEA.

There are adequate oil and natural gas reserves to meet such demand in the world, especially in north Africa and the Middle East. However, some new investments of 17 trillion euros (20 trillion US dollars) will be urgently needed to transfer the energy supply to the consumer market, the IEA said.

Under the IEA’s reference scenario, along with the increasing output of oil, the international oil price will decrease to 35 dollars a barrel by 2010. Nevertheless, the price will rise back to 39 dollars a barrel by 2030, 10 dollars higher than the price the IEA had estimated in 2004.

The Outlook also added that the global refining industry would face new challenges in the future, due to the drop of surplus production capacity and weakness of production flexibility resulting from the lack of investment.