Oil Markets Will Face A Supply Crisis Before Demand Peaks

The year 2020 was a watershed moment for the fossil fuel sector. Faced with a global pandemic, severe demand shocks, and a shift towards renewable energy, experts warned that nearly $900 billion worth of reserves–or about one-third of the value of big oil and gas companies–were at risk of becoming worthless.

Big Oil appears to have mostly resigned itself to this fate.

Last year, British oil giant BP Plc. (NYSE:BP) sent shockwaves through the oil and gas sector after it declared that the world was already past Peak Oil demand. In the company’s 2020 Energy Outlook, chief executive Bernard Looney pledged that BP would increase its renewables spending twentyfold to $5 billion a year by 2030 and “… not enter any new countries for oil and gas exploration.”