Is an oil shortage looming? If the world fails to tap new oil reserves by the end of 2025, yes, says one oil company CEO.
China's economy is cranking back up to pre-COVID levels and Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub says by the end of 2025, demand for oil will be greater than what the world is producing.
OPEC expects demand to grow by 1.8 million barrels a day in that time.
LSU Center for Energy Studies Professor Greg Upton says even if those predictions come true, there's still some risk.
"And so the question will be for companies is, how much to invest today in order to make sure that production comes online at the same time in the future that the demand is there?" Upton said.
Upton said even to tap known reserves, it takes a significant investment, and oil companies want to be sure there won't be a sudden drop in demand in the near future before the spend all that money.
"Will the demand be there in the future? Will there be someone to purchase this product?" he said.
"There's a risk if you will, from that perspective, that there'll be some technological advancement in which you perhaps won't need as much oil as we project today," said Upton.
But, he says, if the world absolutely needs the oil, "there are plenty of molecules down there that we can extract."