El-Badri of OPEC says Iran Oil Output Irreplaceable

El-Badri of OPEC says Iran Oil Output Irreplaceable

VIENNA, July 10, 2008

Al-Alam News

OPEC would not be able to replace Iran's oil production if the country halted exports during a war with the Israeli regime or the United States, the oil organization's chief said Thursday.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' secretary general AbdUllah Salem El-Badri told a news conference: "If something were to happen it is impossible to replace the production of Iran, it's not feasible to replace it."

Iran and the West are at loggerheads over Tehran's refusal to backs down from its uranium enrichment, saying it is an inalienable right to signatories of the non-proliferation pact.

Badri warned the prices would "go unlimited," in case of a military confrontation with Iran, which the fourth major supplier in the world.

The OPEC chief, a former oil executive who has headed the oil industry in Libya and served as deputy prime minister of that country, called for a peaceful solution to the nuclear issues.

He warned that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have already left scars on the region an additional conflict in the region would be severe and long-lasting.

"If something happened there, nobody would be able to solve it," he said, referring to a war involving Iran.

The comments by Badri came as OPEC cut its estimate for world oil demand over the next two decades, predicting that high prices would compel consumer countries to be more efficient in their use of the precious commodity.

In its annual World Oil Outlook, released on Thursday, OPEC forecast that world oil demand would amount to 113.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2030 that is lower than the cartel's previous forecast of 117.6 million bpd published a year ago.

For the current year, the oil organization is forecasting total world oil demand of around 86.9 million bpd.

It insisted that there was no danger of the world's oil reservoirs running dry.

"Availability is not an issue," it wrote. "There is enough oil to meet the world's needs for the foreseeable future."

The issue was tapping into those reserves, OPEC continued. "What is an issue is the deliverability of the required oil."

Investment in exploration and production in excess of 2.15 trillion Euros (3.4 trillion dollars) would be needed and 615 billion Euros would need to be invested in refineries, OPEC estimated.

Alternative oil sources, such as oil sands, and liquified natural gas were to set grow in importance by 2030, accounting for up to 25 percent of all extracted oil compared with 14 percent in 2006.

OPEC nevertheless noted that its forecasts were subject to uncertainty, such as the impact of environmental measures taken by the US and Europe to slash their carbon gas emissions.

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