Tom Moeller, Refining Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa was a keynote speaker at the 5th European Fuels Conference, hosted by the World Refining Association, which was held on Tuesday 16 March in Paris. Moeller spoke about Europe's energy future and it's refining challenges.

The European Fuels Conference is designed to give attendees a real and timely insight into the major issues and challenges facing the European refining industry. Moeller addressed a high profile audience of 200 industry representatives, policy makers and leading technical experts.

Moeller said ExxonMobil sees the growth of the oil demand in the transport sector in Europe growing at 0.4% per year over the 2000-2020 period, with oil demand growth strongest in transportation. Moeller also predicts a 1.9% a year growth in diesel demand until 2020 and 0.9% a year slide in gasoline demand for the same period. He said that despite advances in alternative fuels and vehicles, automotive industry projections indicate that through 2030 internal combustion engines will continue to power over 80% of all vehicles.

Moeller identified five factors, which will challenge refiners. On the supply side, the prospect of growing crude imports from Russia, will mean new pipeline supply routes and quality issues will present a new challenge to some refiners. On the demand side, Moeller pointed to the expansion of the EU eastwards, growing gasoline demand in the US and booming product demand in Asia as new variables to be grappled with. Moeller also added the EU's emerging CO2 emissions trading scheme will throw up another cost variable.

ExxonMobil positions itself to meet challenges through a continued strong focus on reliability, technology, energy efficiency and people development.