'Oil not to blame for climate change?

PARIS. April 3. KAZINFORM OPEC said yesterday that oil was not to blame for climate change and consuming countries should pay to fight the threat, while the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell said drivers could help by not buying gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles.

?Oil is not responsible,? the producer group?s secretary-general, Abdullah Al-Badri, told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of the international oil summit here. ?It is the industrialized countries which are making all this pollution in the world.? Badri said the revenues from high taxes that some industrialized countries, including most western European nations, place on oil products should be diverted to environmental projects. OPEC, whose member countries pump more than a third of the world?s oil, has supported the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, which encourage reductions in emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). However, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has also opposed plans to reduce oil consumption and advocated adaptation to climate change. Badri criticized the subsidies developed countries offer to promote renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, the world?s second-largest oil company by market value, told the same conference that drivers should help fight climate change by using more fuel efficient vehicles. At the summit, oil companies and Gulf state ministers warned that the global economic crisis is causing international oil and gas companies to under-invest in new production, which threatens to spark a new spike in crude prices once the downturn ends. ?If prices stay low for a long time future supply growth will be impossible, leading to another price run-up in the future,? Qatar Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah said. Al-Attiyah said crude prices ?must rise to a level that supports investment,? and said that in his opinion, $50 a barrel ?is the pragmatic price.? The conference brought together industry executives of Europe?s two largest oil companies and ministers of Gulf states to debate the industry?s future amid a gloomy economic outlook for the world?s biggest energy consumers. Oil prices crept above $49 a barrel yesterday, but have pulled back from three-month highs of $54 a barrel last month, as investors weighed hopes of recovery in the global economy against expectations that demand will remain weak for a long time. Last summer ? before the worst of the financial crisis erupted ? oil was as high as $147 a barrel before tumbling. ?Definitely this crisis will leave strong traces in the long term and we will probably not see the same world anymore,? Total SA Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said. The head of France?s largest company warned that Total may not achieve its target of investing 18 billion euros ($23.84 billion) this year, as some projects are likely to be ?slightly delayed.? De Margerie said there was no list of projects that were delayed, and that his goal was to have no delays. But speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the conference, De Margerie said he doubted whether talks between the company and Iran over plans to develop the massive South Pars gas fields would ever succeed. While denying that talks had completely ended with Iran, De Margerie said: ?As the situation is probably economically and globally not very satisfactory, I think that we?ll probably never successfully complete renegotiations over South Pars.? Earlier this month Iran said a new partner would take over work on the current phase of its massive South Pars gas fields, accusing Total of bowing to US pressure and ?procrastinating? in a project key to the country?s development plans, Kazinform cites the Arab News.