The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stated in its World Oil Outlook 2015 that $10t worth of investment in the oil and gas industry will be needed through 2040 in order to meet world’s energy demand, OilPrice reported. OPEC added that about $250b would have to come from non-OPEC countries each year.

OPEC’s Secretary General, Abdalla Salem El-Badri explained that the investments should target exploration and production in order to ensure adequate oil supplies. He warned of the risk of under-investments that would result in lacking infrastructure and capacity amid rising global demand, Ship&Bunker informed.

OPEC projects less optimistic future saying that oil prices are unlikely to return to the triple-digit level within the next 25 years. It expects oil prices to rise by an average of about $5 per year over the course of this decade, only reaching $80 per barrel in 2020, and hitting $95 per barrel no sooner than 2040. The OPEC report further estimates that global demand will start decelerating gradually first after 2020, attributing it to slowing economic growth, declining population rates, and efficiency and climate change efforts, OilPrice added. However, until 2020, OPEC estimates a consumption rise by 6.1mb/d of oil.

In addition, the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015 cited by Forbes stated that the world was to witness a decline in overall oil reserves as most of the existing reserves globally seem to be problematic to recover due to technical and/or economic difficulties.