The head of ExxonMobil said yesterday that the global energy industry would fail to produce enough oil to meet increased demand unless oil-rich states opened the door to more investment. He also accused the United States Government of failing to do its share in bringing more resources on stream.

In a bleak assessment of the state of the market, Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chairman, said that it would take two years for a supply response to begin to mitigate the present tightness in the oil market, which has led prices to nearly $100 per barrel.

The Exxon chief pointed to market-distorting subsidies among big oil consumers such as China, which were preventing price signals from getting through to consumers. He said that the isolationism of some oil-consuming nations and the protectionism of leading oil producers would have severe consequences for global energy security and gave warning that the International Energy Agency’s oil demand forecasts of 116 million barrels per day by 2030 would not be met unless petro-states opened the door to more investment.

“The resource-holders have to make those resources available. It is not a resource problem; there are plenty of fossil fuel reserves,” Mr Tillerson said.

Speaking at the World Energy Congress in Rome, Mr Tillerson criticised Washington for keeping its huge unexploited oil and gas reserves off limits to development. The United States imports 15 million barrels of oil per day, about 30 per cent of its daily energy demand, he said. “If the US is serious about energy policy, it has to make positive decisions,” he added.

Mr Tillerson described the political climate for oil companies as one of retrenchment on the part of some governments, with, on one hand, calls for energy independence and, on the other, efforts to build energy super-powers. He said that energy independence was unrealistic for big consuming nations, such as America, and could have a “chilling effect” on its energy trading partners, increasing uncertainty and hindering investment in new resources.

Meanwhile, resource nationalism was damaging confidence, with nationalisations and the unilateral change of existing contracts with oil multi-nationals.

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