Aren't OPEC essentially trying to starve out the competition (shale, fracking, solar, wind, etc.)? They are basically flooding the market with cheap oil and thereby making all the alternatives economically unattractive?
Western oil interests are probably right to spend on discovery then, since they'd believe OPEC can't pump forever and non-OPEC sources will be profitable in the future and will take years to develop. This is probably where the author and oil executives differ in their belief, that there will be a market for oil in the future.
However the author doesn't present any evidence to suggest non-oil sources will be sufficiently more profitable, less expensive and widely available in the future. Further, there is no evidence presented that a non-binding climate change agreements will destroy the oil market.
Western oil interests are probably right to spend on discovery then, since they'd believe OPEC can't pump forever and non-OPEC sources will be profitable in the future and will take years to develop. This is probably where the author and oil executives differ in their belief, that there will be a market for oil in the future.
However the author doesn't present any evidence to suggest non-oil sources will be sufficiently more profitable, less expensive and widely available in the future. Further, there is no evidence presented that a non-binding climate change agreements will destroy the oil market.