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What's the issue?
The world is using more and more energy. Energy use in 2050 is expected to be double what it is today. The main reason is population growth - from six billion to more than nine billion people. This increase combined with higher prosperity throughout the world will see more people buying cars, bigger homes to heat or cool, and more power hungry gadgets.
Around 80% of this energy comes from fossil fuels and they will remain our dominant energy source for some time to come. However, while a hundred years ago, oil would seep up to the earth’s surface making it easy to collect, the oil and gas we have relied on to power our lives is getting more difficult to reach and recover – in harsher environments and in deeper and more complex reservoirs. And on its own, this easy oil will not be enough.
So to meet demand today means not leaving behind the oil we know we can reach and finding ways to unlock the oil we thought we could not. It also means being more energy efficient in how we carry out our business and providing the products that will help others use less energy too. It also means looking to sources beyond oil and gas that can power our lives in the future.
Technology has always been at the centre of the energy industry and today, combined with great minds, we look to it to help us address our biggest challenge yet – the energy challenge.
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Meeting demand
Getting more
Shell technology is extending the lives of oil and gas fields to get the most out of existing reservoirs.
Finding new and unconventional resources
As the world’s energy needs rise, so does the ingenuity of scientists and engineers to develop and implement techniques and technologies that will access new forms of fossil fuels.