DOHA: The Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah has said that developing an accurate energy data analysis and projection is key for energy policy development and financial investment planning.
Addressing ExxonMobil 2013 Energy Outlook Forum yesterday, Al Attiyah said energy producers and consumers, government planners, oil companies, market investors and all those who are affected directly or indirectly by the impact of the energy market are looking for an accurate data. To make the right investment decisions we need to rely on quality analysis and plausible forecast of future energy supply and demand directions and consumption patterns, Al Attiya said.
Rapid developments in oil and gas production combined with population and economic growth, environmental objectives, geo-political factors and Government policies are having profound effect on domestic, regional and international energy markets.
The global energy landscape is changing rapidly. And those changes will recast our expectations about the role of different countries, regions and fuels over the coming decades. We are living in a time of game-changers across the fuel spectrum and these will present both new opportunities and new challenges.
Sharing his nearly four decades of experience in the energy sector Al Attiyah recalled that forecasts conducted after the first oil shock in 1973 did not predict the ability of the Western economies to adopt more energy-efficient technologies and practices which led to the oil price collapse of the eighties.
Similarly, energy forecasters did not see the growing importance of the non-Opec production and the oil glut that followed in the early nineties. More recently, long term energy forecasts and projections made during the last decade did not see the rapid emergence of the shale gas phenomenon in the US and its huge impact potential on the global energy markets.
Although most long-term forecasts are not perfect in some respect, we must acknowledge that they remain essential to investment decisions.
Jointly hosted by the General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP), the event brought together leaders of the country’s energy industry, representatives from Qatar’s ministries, foreign ambassadors, academia, community leaders and key journalists to discuss ExxonMobil’s long-term view of the energy future published annually as the Outlook for Energy.
Participants in the forum included H E Dr Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and Chairman and Managing Director of Qatar Petroleum, Dr. Ibrahim Ibrahim, Economic Advisor to the Emir and Executive Member of the Supreme Committee for Development Planning, Alistair Routledge, Vice President of ExxonMobil Qatar Inc., Rob Gardner, Corporate Strategic Planning Economics and Energy Manager for Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Sean Evers, Managing Partner of Gulf Intelligence and moderator of the eventThe Peninsula
