United States Oil Fund (USO)

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$USO Saudi Aramco sees long-term oil shortage amid insufficient investment

The world is heading for an oil supply shortage that U.S. shale production will be unable to prevent, as the oil price downturn of recent years has cut investments in long-term oil exploration and development projects, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says.

The long-term outlook for oil supplies is "increasingly worrying," with ~$1T in investments lost during the downturn and fewer new deposits being discovered, Nasser told the World Petroleum Conference in Istanbul, adding that the world needs at least 20M bbl/day of new production over the next five years to meet rising oil demand as well as offset the natural decline of developed fields.

The petroleum industry will be at the heart of global energy for years, and the transition to use of alternatives will be “long and complex," Nasser says.

Aramco remains committed to invest more than $300B over the next decade to maintain its spare oil production capacity and explore for more natural gas, Nasser also says.