With Shale, ‘Increasingly Unlikely’ World’s Oil Reserves Ever Exhausted, Says BP Economist

The “core beliefs” that many energy economists had about the global oil markets have been upended by the U.S. shale revolution, BP plc’s chief economist said Tuesday.

Spencer Dale argued for an updated set of principles to reflect the new economics of oil on Tuesday before the Society of Business Economists Annual Conference in London. Two things, he said, are having a profound impact on the future of the energy markets: the shale revolution and concerns about carbon emissions.

“The emergence of shale oil, together with growing concerns about climate change and the environment, means that the beliefs that many of us have used in the past to analyze the oil market are out of date,” he said. He argued that:

• Oil is not likely to be exhausted and no presumptions should be made...