Despite the climate emergency, fossil fuels continue to develop

Oil and gas producers continued to validate extraction projects in 2023, according to a report from the NGO Global energy monitor.

In total, 20 gas or oil field projects have been definitively validated across the world in 2023, according to the Global Energy Monitor study. This potential corresponds to the equivalent of 8 billion barrels, as much as in 2022. The three largest projects now on track concern gas fields in the United Arab Emirates, Libya and Brazil.

The report also lists the countries which validate the most new extractions. In the lead, we find the United States, followed by Guyana and the United Arab Emirates. And it’s not finished. By the end of the century, fossil fuel giants, whether private or public, hope to launch more than 60 additional extraction projects.

The search for deposits also continues

The other part of the Global energy monitor publication focuses on the search for new deposits, which is also continuing. 19 new oil or gas reservoirs have, in fact, been identified in 2023, a figure down significantly compared to 2022. However, the NGO describes a sham inflection after the post-Covid rebound.

Among the notable discoveries, a huge gas field was located in Iran. This is the most important find of the last two years, even larger than the reservoir, called Venus, spotted by TotalEnergies in Namibia. This African country should become in the coming years one of the major producers of fossil fuels, like Guyana or Cyprus, until now almost absent from the black gold and gas markets.

Give up any new project

However, these new projects and new discoveries go against the objectives of carbon neutrality in 2050 and the Paris agreement which plans to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. From 2021, the International Energy Agency called for a halt to all new oil or gas projects. A path “narrow” said the IEA, which does not seem to be used, for the moment, by the fossil fuel giants.

COP28 in Dubai in December 2023 could reverse the trend. The final agreement makes, for the first time, mention of a necessary “transition away from fossil fuels”. A text ratified by the largest oil-producing countries, but not binding.