by Koyel Chatterjee

Created on: October 02, 2008

Experts predict that the world energy demand is likely to double by 2030 from a moderate 150 million barrels in 1980 and countries like China and India would emerge as its largest consumers. It's high time that governments seriously consider harnessing the spiraling demand or think of alternative measures because dependence on OPEC nations might not be a viable option in the years to come as their increasing domestic demands would force them to switch gears.

Such alarming predictions have definitely driven the intelligentsia across the globe to hold frequent seminars and panel discussions to publicly discuss the gravity of the matter and suggest possible solutions. A change in the mind-sets of the people and Govt. policies is what can get a stranglehold of the situation.

In one of the panel discussions organized by the IIT-Bombay Alumni Association celebrating their 50th Anniversary at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York, the future of energy was discussed at length by a panel of five eminent people including Balu Balagopal, Co-Lead of Energy Practices in Boston Consulting Group; Steve Jacobs, President of RMI/ Decision Strategies Inc.; Vijay Modi a faculty member of Columbia University; Vikram Rao, retired CTO of Halliburon; Arvind Sangar from Geosphere Capital Management. Pradeep Anand, President of Seeta Resources LLC. was the session moderator.

To begin the proceedings, Jacobs said, "According to the Peak Oil View, Middle East Oil production will not rise any further, instead would be a larger market than the entire Europe by 2015 and would have little to export. The Plentiful Oil View on the other hand tells us that only 30-35% of the total oil reserves across the globe have been explored and the new technologies will allow 50-70% recovery. It also leads us that high oil and gas prices will enhance exploration and production spending."

Jacobs added, "But the problem is that most of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are located in politically and historically volatile areas and the challenge is developing infrastructure in such places. There are some viable options in the form of Extended Reach Drilling, Seismic Imaging explorations etc. but the question remains whether technology will save the day. Conservation, Alternative Fuel Switching and other energy solutions might be better options."

The obvious question that crops up is what are the alternative energy sources? Rao informed, "There is no shortage of energy molecule. They are simply in the wrong place

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