Benghazi – Oil companies have affirmed in a survey conducted by the Libyan News Agency that oil will remain a long-term strategic resource, despite global shifts towards clean energy and energy alternatives.
Manal Al-Mabrouk, Director of the Media Office at Libya Oil and responsible for the company’s pavilion at the Benghazi Oil Exhibition, affirmed that oil is a huge natural reserve that cannot be easily depleted.
She said: “These resources have existed for thousands of years underground, and it is difficult for them to run out unless natural factors directly affect the raw material. We are monitoring all operations within the portfolio of the Libyan Investment Authority and Ola Energy to ensure the sustainability of distribution and production.”
Al-Mabrouk added that Libya Oil is not limited to just marketing fuel, but also works on distributing oils and insecticides through its factories in Tunisia and Egypt, and exports its products to various parts of Libya.
For his part, Ali Al-Gohary, a petroleum engineer at an Egyptian petroleum services company, explained that oil has a limited production life, and that reservoirs, no matter how large, go through natural production stages before they are depleted.
He said: “We use different methods to extract what remains from the wells, and at the same time, the world is gradually shifting to clean energy. But oil will remain in the ground, and perhaps for more than 100 years before some wells are completely depleted.”
Al-Gohary noted that the change in reliance on oil will be gradual, and that oil will remain an important strategic resource for the coming decades.
The participating companies stressed that their future strategies include monitoring technological developments in the field of alternative energy, while maintaining the sustainability of current production, and preparing early for any change in global demand to ensure that oil continues as a strategic resource.
The companies concluded by saying that the large underground reserves and future planning guarantee the continued role of oil for many years to come, despite the global shifts towards clean energy and energy alternatives.