MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: 17th World Petroleum Congress

Green energy sources cannot meet global development needs and no matter how hard ecologists push for viable alternatives, hydrocarbons will continue to fuel the world for decades, experts at the 17th World Petroleum Congress say.

According to data presented at the Brazil forum, which ends Thursday, a third of the world's six billion inhabitants have no access to fossil fuels, meaning demand for petroleum products will in fact rise considerably over the years.

Oil industry leaders from petroleum-producing nations and companies met in Brazil with representatives from environmental and non-governmental organizations to discuss "The Petroleum Industry: Excellence and Responsibility in Serving Society", the theme of the conference, which is held every three years.

Attending the forum are energy ministers from member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, non-OPEC producing nations and consuming countries.

Industry leaders include senior executives of the Anglo-Dutch company, Shell, TotalFinaElf of France, Spain's Repsol-YPF and Gazprom of Russia.

According to representatives from the world's largest oil-producing nation, Saudi Arabia, the oil industry is the only one that can provide the energy needed to guarantee the development of poor countries.

Chevron Texaco president David O'Reilly said that the industry will be facing one of its biggest challenges ever as it tries to meet the basic energy needs of a world population that is expected to increase by three billion over the next 50 years.

OPEC representatives said the world's energy demands would increase from the current 76 million barrels per day (bpd) to 91 million bpd in 2010 and 120 million bpd by 2020. "Unless an unexpected technological breakthrough occurs, (the idea of) alternative energy sources is utopian," said Ali Rodriguez, president of Venezuela's Petroleos oil company, the world's third largest.