Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says notion of peak oil demand driven by policies, not markets

The CEO of Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco on Monday pushed back against forecasts of peak oil demand, and said the narrative of the current energy transition was based on "unrealistic" assumptions and scenarios.

Speaking at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said talk of peak oil demand had come up many times before.

"This notion is wilting under scrutiny because it is mostly being driven by policies, rather than the proven combination of markets, competitive economics and technology," Nasser said.


Last week, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said new estimates showed the age of relentless fossil growth is ending and demand would peak in 2030, a forecast that drew criticism from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Nasser said he expected demand to grow to around 110 million barrels per day by 2030, and it was important to keep investing in oil and gas to ensure global energy security and an affordable transition to cleaner sources of energy.

"So we need to invest, otherwise in the mid- to long-term we will have another crisis and we will go backward in terms of using more and more coal and other cheap products that are available today."