AFX News Limited: Shell Nederland president sees five-fold rise in oil production costs: Thursday 22 Sept 2005
AMSTERDAM (AFX) - Shell Nederland president Rein Willems said that oil production costs may rise five-fold in the near future.
He said that for Shell, the higher costs will mainly be the result of more difficult resource-gathering and refining methods as the company moves to retrieve oil from sources other than the conventional oil wells.
In an interview with Dutch engineering magazine 'De Ingenieur', Willems said that the higher production costs will likely lead to a stronger focus on alternative sources of energy as opposed to raw fossile fuels such as oil.
But he reiterated that Royal Dutch Shell itself is not investigating alternative energy sources because oil reserves are supposedly running out.
Stating that 'there is enough oil to last a hundred years', Willems added that Shell is more worried about the effect of greenhouse gas emissions.
'That is why there is an increasing demand for alternative energy sources, not because fossile fuels are running out.'
kel/hjp
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