Petrol industry embraces plastics while navigating energy shift [Video]

Amid the inexorable shift toward more electric vehicles, oil and gas producers are looking increasingly to plastics to help keep them afloat, even if that sector faces challenges of its own.

Plastics and chemical products now account for 15 percent of world demand for the refined petroleum products used to make them.

But as “robust growth” continues, that should rise to 25 percent by 2050, Guy Bailey, head of oils and chemicals markets for research firm Wood Mackenzie, told AFP.

This “reflects both the importance of plastics — which are integral to every facet of modern life and the delivery of the energy transition –- and the longer-term decline in the demand for fuels as the transport sector electrifies.”

Bailey added: “The petrochemicals sector plays an important role in the downstream sector.”

– Risky transition –

Whether plastics can provide a sufficient lifeline for the petroleum industry is less clear.

“If you take a …