Energy chiefs rule out impending energy crisis

Leading energy chiefs attending the annual meeting of World Economic Forum said on Friday that there are adequate world energy supplies, and the market and governing energy institutions are able to absorb energy shocks.

"There is no reason for pessimism," Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, told a press conference devoted to energy security.

"Easy oil may have peaked," he said, but high oil prices are providing the public and private sectors with the incentive to invest in discovering alternative sources of energy.

Diversification will alleviate pressures on world supplies, agreed Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency.

Governments and companies will have to diversify away from oil and gas, as well as away from traditional suppliers to find new markets, he added.

Although many people do not believe nuclear energy to be a viable alternative option, Birol said that "climate change and energy security will see Europe and the U.S. look at nuclear much more closely."

Source: Xinhua