Brussels, 12/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - Increasing efforts to make non-conventional oil resources more available and exploiting hitherto undiscovered reserves, extending supply routes and making them safer, ensuring market transparency, taking action on demand particularly from the transport sector: these are the recommendations of the European Parliament on how to ensure the future oil supply of the EU, in a resolution adopted by 471 votes to 190, with 16 abstentions in Strasbourg on Wednesday 11 March. The resolution, drafted from the report by Herbert Reul (EPP-ED, Germany) provides possible solutions to the challenges of oil supply. The text adopted is the alternative EPP-ED resolution to the Greens/EFA draft resolution, which was voted down by 443 votes to 251, with 24 abstentions.
Noting that, according to several forecasts, it will continue to be possible over the next few decades to extract enough oil to meet demand, Parliament highlights the importance of exploration and exploitation of new oil fields. It wants to see efforts increased to make non-conventional resources (tar sands, oil shale, heavy oil) commercially viable, so long as extraction methods do not harm the environment. To remove obstacles to the exploitation of reserves, such as political instability, lack of legal protection, environmental protection measures or resource nationalism, Parliament calls on the Commission to engage in deeper dialogue with producer countries, so that pragmatic solutions of mutual interest may be found. Relations between the EU and producer countries have to be “more dynamic” and there has to be a desire for mutual efforts to ensure a more stable and more reasonable oil supply and charging framework. Parliament welcomes the Commission initiative to organise a global political dialogue between oil consuming and oil producing countries, to find the right balance between supply and demand on the oil market and prevent producer countries from keeping prices at artificially high levels. The Commission is also called on, in its dialogue with oil companies and producer countries, to seek ways of ensuring stable investment, effective energy technologies and R&D in clean fuels.
Pointing out that, according to the International Energy Agency, there will have to be investment of the order of US$ 350 billion by 2020, Parliament urges the Commission and member states to find ways of encouraging long-term investment within the EU, while repeating its opposition to replacing private investment and capital with public money. Believing that oil pipelines were unfairly not included in the trans-European energy networks (TEN-E), Parliament calls on member states to correct this gap, given recent developments that have been characterised by falls in domestic output, rising dependence on imports and the need for new transport capacity. New infrastructure projects, such as the Odessa-Gdansk and Constanta-Trieste oil pipelines, head up the list of priority projects of European interest. Parliament encourages the Council to continue to take part in international military operations to make international navigation, including oil transport, safer following the increase in acts of piracy.
Faced with the instability of oil prices, which was particularly pronounced in 2008 and made worse by speculation, and which results in a dislocation of growing demand and supply limited by gradually decreasing reserves and bottlenecks in production, transport and refining, Parliament asks the Commission and member states to ensure the highest possible level of transparency on the energy markets, particularly in producer countries. Faced with the uncertainty of not knowing when growing demand will exceed falling supply, Parliament calls for all measures that reduce the demand for oil to be put into effect. As well as giving financial backing to investment in alternative energy sources and carbon neutral solutions, member states are called on to give priority to energy efficiency and measures to raise customer awareness, encouraging people to purchase goods and services that use little energy. To slow consumption in transport, the EU and its member states are called on to take further measures which will shift freight transport and mobility to more sustainable forms of transport which use little or no oil, such as rail, inland waterways and intermodal systems in built-up areas (travelling on foot or by bicycle, public transport). The EP also suggests wider use of modern traffic management systems, which reduce waiting times and diversions for road, air and inland waterway transport. While acknowledging the efforts made to diversify the sources of energy used in this sector, Parliament regrets the lack of ambition shown in exploiting the full potential of better designed and lighter energy-saving vehicles. The EP welcomes the increased use of biofuels in transport, but it expresses doubts over the medium- and long-term suitability of first-generation biofuels as a substitute for oil. (E.H./transl.rt)