World must spend US$540B annually looking for oil and gas, IEA says

Global energy industry “has to run much faster just to stand still,” the agency’s executive director Fatih Birol said

The world needs to spend some US$540 billion a year looking for oil and gas to maintain current output by 2050 as the pace of declines in existing fields increases, according to the International Energy Agency.

Faster decline rates, in part because of an increased global dependency on U.S. shale, mean that the global oil and gas industry “has to run much faster just to stand still,” the agency’s executive director Fatih Birol said.

The outlook also means that companies will need to tap reserves that haven’t yet been discovered, unless demand shifts away from fossil fuels, for production to remain where it is today in 25 years. It also marks a significant shift in tone fo