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Inaccurate predictions of when oil production won’t meet demand

Screen Shot 2016-05-20 at 13.11.39By John Donovan

Retired Shell Oil President John Hofmeister (right) will say practically anything to get quoted in the news media, presumably in the hope of raising his public profile. 

CNBC is today reporting his prediction that oil production won’t meet demand in 5 yearsFor some reason, he consistently tries to talk up the price of oil. 

Those of us with good memories may recall a similar reckless prediction made by his former Shell boss, Jeroen van der Veer. 

As reported in the Times newspaper article below (published in January 2008), Mr. van der Veer said that oil and gas demand would outstrip supply within 7 years. In other words, by 2015. 

Instead, as we all know, oil and gas prices collapsed because of a huge supply glut apparently brought about by unforeseen developments, such as fracking.

Our role in the Times story is mentioned in the article. 

I hope both myself and Mr. Hofmeister are still around in five years to see if his prediction is more accurate.

There is a current interview with Jeroen van der Veer on the same subject here

 

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