The price of oil could rise to as much as $150 per barrel in the near term if investment in the oil-producing countries of North Africa and the Middle East is lower than required to meet growth in demand from emerging economies, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
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"Growth, prosperity and rising population will inevitably push up energy needs over the coming decades. But we cannot continue to rely on insecure and environmentally unsustainable uses of energy," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in said the organization’s 2011 edition of the World Energy Outlook.
Under the report’s central scenario, energy demand will increase by one-third between 2010 and 2035, with 90 percent of the growth in non-OECD economies.
China will consume nearly 70 percent more energy than the United States by 2035, the report said, even though, by then, per capita demand in China will still be less than half the level in the United States.
