Saudi Aramco CEO Khalid Al Falih
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HOUSTON (Dow Jones), Mar. 9, 2010

The development and deployment of viable alternatives to fossil fuels "does remain an open question," Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Khalid Al-Falih said Tuesday.

Speaking at an IHS CERA conference in Houston, Al-Falih said that oil still underpins the global economy and is likely to remain at the core of the world's energy needs in the future. The conference, known as CERAWeek, reunites some of the world's top oil and gas executives.

"Global demand for petroleum will recover very strongly" as population and living standards grow, the executive said.

Al-Falih said Saudi Arabia is committed to maintaining 1.5 milion barrels of oil a day of spare production capacity. The kingdom, which recently underwent a big expansion of its oil output, currently has a spare capacity of 4 million barrels a day.

"We believe it's helping markets to be steady," Al-Falih said.

The executive said Saudi Aramco was not slowing down over the next five years, and will invest over 90 billion dollars during that period.

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