Shell Scenarios Outlook Sees Bright Future For Oil, Gas, And LNG

Fresh off a tour of the National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico on Wednesday, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told Fox News host Martha MacCallum that “AI is the next Manhattan Project.” Wright referred there to the project conducted by scientists at Los Alamos during World War II to win the race with Germany to produce the first atomic bombs, a race the American scientists ultimately won. Apparently, scientists and analysts at British major energy company Shell feel the same way.

This becomes evident in the annual Shell Energy Security Scenarios report, in which the authors dedicate major focus on the topic of the impacts AI is likely to have on the global energy equation in the years to come. The report’s creators go so far as to include an entirely new scenario – titled “Surge” – which they say, “explores the prospect of a new wave of economic growth driven by productivity improvements catalysed by AI.”

In that Surge scenario, Shell projects that adoption and refinement of AI technologies helps create more rapid economic growth which in turn drives higher demand for all forms of energy. At the same time, though, AI adoption also drives rapid advancement in technologies which result in faster cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Those emissions reductions come about even in the face of continuing strong demand for fossil fuels like oil and natural gas well into the 2040s.