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Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned Tuesday that the world is “running out of energy capacity at all levels.”
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“I am a dinosaur, but I have never seen these things,” he said at a conference.
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A UAE official also warned that more investment is needed in the energy sector for OPEC+ to deliver sufficient supplies.
The amount of unused capacity that the world can tap to produce more energy products is running out, warned top oil ministers.
Referring to recent price spikes for refined products, Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a Tuesday conference, “I am a dinosaur, but I have never seen these things,” according to Bloomberg.
“The world needs to wake up to an existing reality. The world is running out of energy capacity at all levels,” he added.
Prices for crude oil have surged more than 50% from a year ago to roughly $105 a barrel. But prices for refined products like diesel have soared even higher. In the US, diesel prices are up 78% to $5.50 a gallon, Bloomberg data shows.
The United Arab Emirates’ oil minister said OPEC+ may not be able to deliver on sufficient energy supplies down the line without more investments.
“We’ve been warning about the lack of investment,” Suhail al Mazrouei said in an interview in Abu Dhabi, Bloomberg reported. “That lack of investment is catching up with a lot of countries.”
Mazrouei added that “politicization” of the oil market has pushed supply prices higher.
Meanwhile, the European Union is weighing a full embargo on Russian oil in an attempt to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow for its war on Ukraine. In the event of the oil ban, one analyst predicted Russia would have to slash its oil production within “a year or two.”
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