IEA Repents

The International Energy Agency (IEA) which has even very recently been a strong advocate of continuing investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, in the March 11th Oil Market Report (not yet fully released to the public) apparently calls for promotion of oil alternatives by the industrialized world. This is a remarkable turnaround...  

The full Financial Times report is at least briefly available thanks to Google's cache; the IEA report itself should become public by the end of March.

The major reason for the change of heart from previous reports (for example the February 10th report) is a roughly 20% increase in their projections for 2005 demand growth, from an increase of about 1.5 million to, now, 1.8 million barrels/day over the demand levels of 2004. Demand growth in 2004 was almost 2.7 million barrels/day, so even the new number would represent a decline in the growth rate from last year.

The reason for the change is attributed to continued cold weather in the US and a "more robust view of US economic growth and the impact of this and other factors on China's oil demand growth prospects."

The full Financial Times report quotes an IEA official as saying they hope to "drive the attention of governments to energy efficiency,” and apparently a new report, "Saving Oil In A Hurry," is planned for release in coming months.

Thanks to contributors A Lizard and D. Preble for pointers to this new report.

Created: 2005-03-15 14:29:49 by Arthur Smith