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Global Demand
Global demand for available oil has soared across the globe. While oil resources are known to be in the ground, they cannot be produced as quickly as the increase in demand.
Developing nations such as China and India are entering more energy-intensive phases in their growth. The number of cars in China, for instance, more than doubled between 2000 and 2006. This kind of rapid increase in global demand on available supply causes prices to go up worldwide.
In fact, the world’s demand for oil has increased sharply in recent years, from 77 million barrels per day in 2001 to 85 million barrels per day in 2007. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects world oil consumption to grow by 1.3 million barrels a day in 2009.
For now, Shell is directing much of our forecasted $31-32 billion 2009 capital spending budget into exploration and production. This is the largest capital spending program in the company’s history as well as one of the largest capital programs of public traded companies in the industry. We anticipate this will add around one million barrels per day of new upstream production capacity for Shell worldwide.
While oil will still be an important cornerstone of energy, our commitment to technology and innovation continues to be at the core of our strategy. We believe advanced and alternative fuels will be telling factors in the growth of our business.
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