Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s chief executive, Jeroen Van Der Veer warned that the next spike in oil prices is already in the making as demand will continue to grow and the current oil and gas industry cannot supply all the additional needs. Jeroen spoke at the 14th Annual Asia Oil & Gas Conference on 7-9 June in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

There are going to be six to nine billion people by the year 2050 and it means more “energy use”, especially this part of the world, which means the world needs renewable energy and it takes four to five years to construct a refinery.

“So, we think it is a good philosophy to be a high investor (now) and benefit from the lower construction prices,” he said. "By the year 2050, 30 per cent energy demand will be renewable but a bulk or 70 per cent will still be fossil fuel"

“Therefore in the long term the energy will not be cheap,” said Jeroen, who is retiring on July 1 after being with the company for 38 years.

Read more: The Malaysian Insider [1]