The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday urged the global energy producers, consumers and policy- makers to urgently consider how the traditional oil and OPEC-based energy security paradigm of the 1970s can be improved to meet new realities and long-term needs.

In a statement released in the Nigerian commercial capital Lagos, WEF said the concern was part of the agenda-setting outline for the forthcoming meetings of the World Economic Forum's Energy Industry Partnership in collaboration with the Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).

"Energy is the hinge of the world economy and its security cannot be taken for granted," it said.

According to the WEF, energy security must evolve to reflect a far more complex integration of economies, infrastructures and political alliances and be able to respond to unexpected disruptions, such as natural disasters and geopolitical unrest.

The New Energy Security Paradigm tracks changes in the original elements of energy security as global oil supply and demand and oil production capacity are concentrated on 15 countries with nine of them being OPEC members that control 58 percent of the world liquid production capacity by 2015.

National oil companies have joined in the competition for resources and will require new infrastructure to bring product to market, it said, adding that oil demand is rising quickly in Asia and Brazil, half of global oil demand growth over the next 10 years being forecast to occur in the Asia Pacific.

In the early 1970s, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries accounted for 70 percent of demand, but now they represent only 60 percent of global demand.

Source: Xinhua