Total S.A.'s (TOT) head of exploration Yves-Louis Darricarrere said Tuesday that there is plenty of oil and gas in the ground but also lots of obstacles to extract enough of it to meet growing global needs.

"I don't think in-the-ground resources are an issue," Darricarrere said at the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates annual conference in Houston . There are enough oil resources to last 75 years and natural gas resources to last about 130 years, he said. These projections are the result of the bounty being built by recent exploration successes around the globe.

But, despite this abundance, "for various industrial and geopolitical reasons, it'll be difficult to produce more than 95 to 97 million barrels per day (of oil and natural gas liquids) in the foreseeable future," the French executive said.

Production for 2011 for 87.4 million barrels a day.

For one, projects in the deep-water regions in other conventional drilling areas are getting more expensive. On top of that, several countries maintain barriers to investment. The amount of oil extracted won't quench the growing thirst for energy in the developing world, he said.

"We see structural support for oil and gas prices, excluding North America , in the medium and long term," Darricarrere said. In North America , the recent application of hydraulic fracturing techniques has created an abundance of energy sources, in particular depressing prices for natural gas.
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