BP’s Bob Dudley: No shift to renewables any time soon

Bob Dudley, the CEO of BP, has said that the planet is far away from being run solely on renewable energy power, during a Q&A session at the IHS Ceraweek conference in Houston.

“The sheer size of the world economy and the complexity of that means it cannot be simplified into shift to renewables quickly. Not doubt that the world will go in that direction but it’s gonna take a long time,” Dudley said.

“I think that sort of logic and facts is what’s not in the general debate.”

He pointed that if one surveys on the percentage of renewable supply to the world energy mix, one would get an incorrect answer.

“You get an answer where people believe more than 20 percent of the energy is supplied by renewables. And the real answer is about three (percent) today. And it will move fast, but not fast enough for some,” he explained.

In its outlook for 2035 BP has said that the world energy mix will be ruled by coal, oil and gas with 27% each, 81 percent in total. The rest being nuclear and renewables. BP sees renewables at supplying 8% of the total energy mix twenty years from now.

Dan Yergin, vice chairman of IHS, described the 27 – 27 -27  ratio as a horse race, and asked Dudley which horse of the three would prevail.

Dudley said it’s inevitable that natural gas will win that horse race, also highlighting the fact that natural gas is the cleanest, lowest emissions fuel of the three.

He said that natural gas emissions were half of coal, and oil is somewhere in between the two.

Offshore Energy Today Staff