The future of oil: major challenges

Faced with ever-increasing demand for crude oil, and the prospect of peak production in the not-too-distant future, a number of technological challenges will have to be met in the coming years, both to postpone the advent of peak oil, and to prepare for the energy transition. These challenges include

• progress in exploration ;

• improving production yields;

• the development of hitherto inaccessible fields;

• upgrading of extra-heavy crudes such as Venezuelan or Canadian crudes;

• maximizing the conversion of crude oil into transport fuels by converting as many heavy products as possible, such as fuel oils, which used to be used as combustibles to supply electricity, among other things, into fuels. Electricity, for...