Saudi Aramco President and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih brushed aside “peak oil” concerns, saying the world has plentiful supply of oil and gas, with a vast quantity of known reserves yet to be tapped and additional resources still to be discovered. Speaking at the Oxford Energy Forum, Al-Falih said off-and-on fears that the world's oil resources are about to be exhausted are baseless, according to a report by Saudi Press Agency. Al-Falih said geological evidence proved that the energy-hungry world can still bank on between 6 and 8 trillion barrels of conventional oil and natural gas liquids and about 7 trillion barrels of unconventional oil. The ability to produce those resources hinges on a complex interplay of technology, economic, environmental and regulatory factors, said Al-Falih, who heads the national oil company of the world's largest crude exporter. Aramco operates the world's largest single hydrocarbon network, and produced nearly 3.4 billion barrels of oil last year, managing over 100 oil and gas fields in the country. The concept of “peak oil” has been an issue of contention among oil producers, environment lobby groups and policy makers ever since the term was coined by geophysicist M. King Hubbert in the 1950s. Hubbert predicted that world oil supply would peak in 1995. Some oil experts have estimated that oil production will hit peak levels by 2020.
