Ex-Shell Chairman Calls for Viable Fuel Alternatives

Oil majors must invest more heavily in developing viable alternatives to oil and gas before oil hits $150 per barrel, warns the former chairman of oil company Shell.

Speaking ahead of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) conference, Lord Oxburgh accused the industry of having its "head in the sand" in an interview with UK newspaper The Independent.

Lord Oxburgh is expected to lead debate at the conference in Ireland by tackling the twin challenges of peak oil - the theory that global oil production is a reaching maximum limit, which is when demand will outstrip supply – and climate change.

ODAC says climate change and peak oil are inextricably linked and is calling on the industry for an integrated policy response.

Lord Oxburgh is also expected to focus on the role that renewable energy can offer.

ODAC is a charity working to raise international public awareness of the depletion of the world's oil and gas supplies.

By Ozge Ibrahim