ABU DHABI: Fuel prices consumers pay at the pump will be driven by a willingness to keep investing in fossil fuels, the UAE’s energy minister said on Monday, as oil industry leaders reiterated the need for ongoing investment to smooth the energy transition.
Speaking at the ADIPEC energy industry event in Abu Dhabi, minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said the OPEC+ producer group cares “that the price is right for consumers, but right for the consumers for a very limited time only is short-sighted”.
More investment is needed in oil and gas for prices to be “right at the pump”, he added.
When asked whether high crude prices could threaten the health of the global economy, al-Mazrouei said OPEC+ never targets a certain oil price.
The group, which comprises the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, in June agreed to extend their oil output cuts until the end of 2024.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have also extended 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of additional voluntary cuts until the end of the year.
That helped push Brent crude prices to above $90 a barrel in early September, with the futures contract last week approaching the psychological threshold of $100 a barrel.
OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said at the same event that he is optimistic about oil demand growth, and that he saw under-investment as a risk to energy security.
“We are... running quite low on spare capacity, we have said this repeatedly, and this requires a concerted effort by all of the stakeholders to see the importance of investing in this industry,” he said.
Mazrouei said investment by both international and national oil companies was needed, and that “these investments need the financial world to be willing to finance oil and gas”.
He later told reporters that his country is on track to expand its oil production capacity to 5 million bpd by 2027 from 4.2 million bpd currently.
The CEO of US oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Vicki Hollub warned that low investments will drive energy prices higher.
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