Fatih Birol Quotations

Security of supply and climate change are what we are worried about. We think security of supply will be a big problem.

If these countries do not increase their investments substantially, we will end up with difficulties on the energy markets. We may end up with much higher prices.

If investments do not come in a timely and sufficient manner, there will be higher oil prices, and global economic growth will suffer.

If this year's average oil price hits $50, then this will slash 0.8 percent of the world economic growth.

We are worried about supply in general throughout the world and particularly of gasoline and particularly in the United States.

Turkey is a very poor country in respect to power. This has made the country very vulnerable... I think this government is rather determined to go ahead.

What happened between Russia and the Ukraine will be an important wakeup call for Europe and countries that were thinking of leaving nuclear aside.

We expect CO2 emissions growth in China between now and 2030 will equal the growth of the United States, Canada, all of Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Korea combined,

We think security of supply will be a big problem.

Saudi Arabia has the oil reserves and the domestic capital to boost their production. But they might not want to increase their investments to boost production. They may want to influence the world price environment.

The oil infrastructure is robust enough to deal with a 5% cut in supply.

It's not about rocks or about reserves, it's about investment policy.

The issue in the oil business today is not the reserves but the money, the investment decisions, the investment climate.

Energy is significantly underpriced in many parts of the world, leading to wasteful consumption, price volatility and fuel smuggling. It's also undermining the competitiveness of renewables.

Energy markets can be thought of as suffering from appendicitis due to fossil fuel subsidies. They need to be removed for a healthy energy economy.

Just 8% of the $409bn spent on fossil-fuel subsidies in 2010 went to the poorest 20% of the population.

We need a universally accepted definition of reserves reporting.

If production does not increase in Iraq in an exponential way between now and 2015, we have a very big problem, even if Saudi Arabia meets its obligations. The figures are very simple, you do not need to be an expert. It is enough to know how to do a subtraction. China will grow very quickly, India also, and even Saudi Arabia projections of the 3 Mb/day will not be enough to meet the rise of Chinese demand.

We are on track for a 3.5 deg C rise by 2040 (i.e. 4.2 deg C relative to pre-industrial)... When I look at this data, the trend is perfectly in line with a temperature increase of 6 degrees Celsius, which would have devastating consequences for the planet. We have 5 years to change the energy system, or have it changed

There are many disturbing news. We believe that the production of conventional petroleum reached peak oil already in 2006. The oil fields in the North Sea and the US are collapsing ... time is running out.

We are on the brink of a new energy order. Over the next few decades, our reserves of oil will start to run out and it is imperative that governments in both producing and consuming nations prepare now for that time. We should not cling to crude down to the last drop – we should leave oil before it leaves us. That means new approaches must be found soon..... The really important thing is that even though we are not yet running out of oil, we are running out of time.