Press Release 19 September 2007

Coal:

• Plentiful - Economically recoverable in 70 countries
• Global total lower by 7% in 3 years (refined assessments)
• Demand expected to continue to grow
• Strongest growth in developing countries
• Coal-to-liquids for transportation provides additional demand

Oil:

• Proved recoverable reserves are 117 billion barrels higher than 2002
• 61% in Middle East, 11% in Africa, 8% in each of Europe and S. America and 5% in N. America
• Oil will not run out for many years
• Predictions of the production peak highly dependent on resource estimate revisions, further discoveries, technology advances, unconventional sources
• Timing is less important than vision of the long-term decline

Natural Gas:

• Proved reserves grew by 3.5% 2005/2002
• Approximately half in OPEC (compare oil with 75%)
• 20% in one field between Qatar and Iran
• Present production levels equal 56 year supply from just proved reserves – resources will add more
• Amount to be discovered has been consistently underestimated

Uranium:

• Reasonably assured resources grew by 4% 2005/2003
• 10-fold price increase since 2000
• Largest production in Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia
• 435 reactors with 367 GWe capacity at beginning 2007
• Thorium 3 times as abundant but no active exploration or exploitation

Renewable Energy:

• Renewables provide about 1/5th of power generation
• Hydro about 87% of renewables; only 1/3rd of potential developed
• Bioenergy – largest share is wood, followed by charcoal and biomass for electricity. Also crop residues, municipal waste etc.
• Biofuels interest at an all-time high; price of oil exceeds  biofuels such as ethanol (40% of world production in US and 37% in Brazil)
• Wind has grown rapidly, capacity doubling every 3.5 years
• Solar thermal, PV and Passive Solar have great potential: PV markets growing by 35%/year
• Marine energies yet to be developed fully – wave resource alone estimated to be as much as 10TW