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Assistant Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources for Petroleum Affairs: The World We Live in Is Changing Faster than Ever Leading to the Emergence of New Patterns of Economic Relations 2 Riyadh
all fuelled by energy - have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and created a substantial middle class in emerging markets. In Asia alone, 525 million people can be considered as middle class - this is more than the total population of the EU. Indeed, one of the key dynamics shaping energy markets over the last three decades has been growing energy demand in non-OECD. Between 1990 and 2013, non-OECD increased its oil consumption from around 25 million b/d to almost 45.7 million b/d, i.e. an increase of more than 20 million b/d. During the same period, OECD demand increased only by 3.8 million b/d. He also said that over the next two decades, the size of the global middle class is expected to grow from the current level of 1.8 billion to 3.2 billion in 2020, and to 4.9 billion in 2030, with the bulk of this expansion occurring in Asia. Unlike their Western counterparts, the new emerging middle class will be made up of younger people eager to increase their consumption. The young demographics amidst rising income levels will generate strong oil demand growth, even after factoring in efficiency gains and alternative fossil fuels used for transportation. In terms of oil and liquid fuel consumption, even some of the pessimistic scenarios project an increase of close to 20 million b/d by 2035. While oil demand is expected to continue on its upward trend, increasing supply is proving more challenging and more costly. A few years ago, peak oil enthusiasts dominated the energy scene, insisting that global oil production was beyond its peak. Now the pendulum seems to have moved in the opposite direction and expectations of scarcity have been replaced with expectations of abundance. Some are predicting the oil market might be drifting into an oil price shock, describing the current situation as very reminiscent of the period 1981-86, which culminated in the dramatic 1986 oil price collapse. The development of shale resources in the US contributed in large part to this shift in perceptions, the Assistant Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources for Petroleum Affairs said. --More 19:20 LOCAL TIME 16:20 GMT تغريد
