PESHAWAR, June 29: Speakers at a seminar have cautioned against the occurrence of an impending oil shortage in the next few years and said that the global oil production will fall, causing a crisis in the near future.

They were speaking at a one-day seminar on global energy crisis that was arranged here by Executive Development Centre, a subsidiary of the Abasyn Institute of Management Sciences here on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner Income Tax Tariq Arbab said that the resultant shock of the oil famine was inevitable as most economies were greatly dependent on fuel oil. He recalled that the world would be faced with a decline in the critical energy supply after fuelling economies for the past 150 years.

Elaborating on ways and means of softening the shock of the oil supply shortage, Mr Arbab said that all giant oilfields were near depletion and the production was on the decline except the Middle East, especially in areas comprising Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia, adding that even there, no great oilfield had been found since 1970.

Figures regarding resource depletion and mass consumption showed that oil prices would rise, he said, adding that after 50 years, there would be inflation, recession and international tension over the oil issue.

Mr Arbab almost all sectors of industry and economy would feel the pinch of natural resources depletion. Other speakers stressed the need for engendering greater public awareness and the need for taking decisions on planetary scale to bring major changes in energy consumption.