Global demand for oil is projected to grow through 2030.
Don't count out "Black Gold", "Texas tea" yet. Despite a pandemic and the president’s push for green energy, oil is and will be needed here and across the world.
“As people get a better quality of life and afford more mobility, basic building blocks of modern life like petrochemicals going to plastics, it is unlikely climate policy or COVID impacts will be big enough to disrupt that,” Rice University’s Mark Finley said.
Finley contributed to a recent study which measured how political, economic, social, and technological factors could impact transportation and global oil demand.
“In three of our four scenarios, oil demand does fall in the United States and in Europe, but in two of those three, it’s not enough to offset growth in those emerging economies,” Finley explained.
He says China and India are two places where that growth is likely to remain steadfast in the decade ahead. Finley also tells KTRH the pandemic hasn't been all bad for oil. Americans who have moved out of major metropolitan areas within the last year are driving more instead of using mass transit.