Sustainability of Supply?

Speech by Shell’s CEO describes the challenges and remaining opportunities Shell sees for worldwide hydrocarbons (conventional and unconventional).  I found two things interesting:  1) Despite an upbeat tone, title of speech contains the prominent question mark; 2) The admission (as with Chevron) that the era of cheap oil is over (buried in second-to-last paragraph).
“We can continue to meet our growing demand for energy. However, developing future energy resources is becoming more challenging and more expensive. That means that stable investment conditions will be needed to secure funding to develop those resources. It also means the energy industry will need to continue to develop and deploy new technology and good project management. In particular, it will need to ensure that it recruits and retains the people with the skills and expertise to meet those demands. The industry will also need to look at sustainability in the broader sense, exploring ways to tackle the carbon problem as well as developing renewable forms of energy. All these present challenges to the energy industry but also provide the opportunity for it to play its part in driving continuing progress in our world.”

Shell (PDF)