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BP Makes Case For More Oil Drilling As Spill Continues

09 June 2010 13:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico from a BP PLC (BP) well, the company highlighted Wednesday that world energy demand is likely to resume growth in 2010 and the need for investment in new energy sources remains great, albeit with stronger environmental safeguards, Wall Street Journal reported.

The company also noted that U.S. oil production in 2009 grew 7%, faster than any other country and its largest increase in decades. The major driver of U.S. oil output in recent years has been exactly the kind of deep water Gulf of Mexico exploration that triggered the current environmental catastrophe in the region.

The world’s primary energy consumption fell by 1.1% in 2009 due to the global recession, said BP’s Chief Economist Christof Ruehl in the company’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy. This was the first decline since 1982 and was driven by falling demand in developed countries, he said. Demand growth, driven by the developing world, will resume in 2010, BP said.

"The world needs to invest today to be able to deliver the energy supplies that will be needed in the future," said Iain Conn, BP’s Group Managing Director and Chief Executive of Refining & Marketing.

"Events in the Gulf of Mexico, however, demonstrate that access to some energy resources will almost certainly require enhanced measures to ensure safe operations and capabilities to safeguard the environment."

Oil has been flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from a BP well since April 22, resulting in the U.S.’s worst environmental disaster. The spill was triggered by an explosion aboard the Transocean Ltd. (RIG) drilling platform Deepwater Horizon on April 20 that killed 11 men.

U.S. oil production grew by 460,000 barrels a day in 2009, the largest increase in BP’s data set that goes back to 1965, the company said.