Main risks for oil market include sanctions, lack of investments - Energy Ministry
MOSCOW. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The main risks on the global oil market are the lack of investments and politically motivated sanctions, an Energy Ministry statement on the results of Energy Minister Alexander Novak's speech on the situation on the global oil market given at a plenary session of the International Energy Forum said.
Novak called forum participants' attention to the risks connected with the unprecedented decline of investment programs of oil companies amid the crisis of low crude prices. "Today a large part of production growth is provided by the investments that were made earlier. In the long term, we all the same need to use expensive sources of oil. In the situation where low prices and a lack of investments remain, fundamental risks arise for the emergence of a shortage of energy resources, the accumulation of critical amounts of lost production, the decline in reserve growth," Novak was cited as saying in the statement.
The Energy Ministry also cited politically motivated sector sanctions, the destabilization of the political situation and direct military interventions as risk factors for the global market. "Energy is a global property, and access to energy is critically important for the development of the global economy. Politically motivated restrictions on free trade of energy are, perhaps, one of the most serious challenges of modern times," the minister said.
The minister said that joint work of OPEC and major non-OPEC oil producers may facilitate the speedy recovery of a balance on the global oil market. "One of the elements of strengthening the role of the International Energy Forum could be a special meeting of OPEC representatives, non-OPEC exporters and major producers that do not export for a discussion about the disputes on the global market," Novak said.
