Over breakfast on Friday 29th June, I was fortunate enough to hear Christof Ruehl (Group Chief Economist, BP plc) present the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2007 in Melbourne. This is not intended as a complete summary of the presentation, since the slides and full speech notes are available from the BP Website.

Economic Growth and Intensity

Climate Change

"Climate change is a long term problem, but all the evidence suggests that if we delay and do nothing the costs of responding will grow and could be damagingly high." [BP]

Oil company websites publish the text of many important speeches. They are easy to read and contain a wealth of information. These carefully worded documents are designed to educate but also to place public pressure on Governments to act in the interests of major oil companies. In so doing, they give us an insight into the challenges the oil companies foresee and their strategy for dealing with them. They state the challenges clearly, but never to cause concern. And of course, they make a strong case for their ability to meet the challenges, with the right kind of help.

World Oil Supplies

"The world is not running out of oil and gas" [BP]

"We can continue to meet our growing demand for energy"[Shell]

BP and Shell are repeating this statement loud and clear. There is no doubt about their public position. However, they are also making it clear that the challenges to meet energy demand are becoming much greater.