Oil prices are unlikely to collapse even though demand is expected to slow and supplies of fossil fuels have risen significantly, the chief executive of state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco said.

"Our industry now faces downward pressure on demand; supply abundance; a slow-down in the deployment of renewables; and reduced momentum on climate change legislation," Khalid al-Falih said in a speech made to the Oxford Energy Institute late September released on Aramco's website Monday.

"It doesn't mean our industry is in bad shape or that prices are going to collapse, but that's a profoundly altered world energy landscape from the one we faced a decade, or even just a few years, ago," he said.

Demand this year, for example, is expected to increase by only a modest 850,000 barrels per day, or less than 1%, whereas growth averaged more than 2.3% between 1965 and 2010, he said.

November Nymex light sweet crude rose 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $92.01 a barrel during European trading hours. On Friday, the contract had dropped 21 cents during the New York Mercantile Exchange session, after the International Energy Agency cut its 2012 estimate of growth in oil demand, but still managed to finish the week 2.2% higher.

Saudi Aramco, fully owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world with activities in exploration, production, refining, distribution, shipping and marketing.

The firm is adapting to the "paradigm shift" in the energy industry but will continue to invest in crude oil exploration and development in a bid to keep its oil production portfolio robust.

Mr.al-Falih said the firm will invest $35 billion over the next five years on oil exploration and development, while it also plans to increase its conventional and unconventional gas supplies by almost 250% over the coming couple of decades.

The company also hopes to diversify its energy portfolio and boost earnings from downstream activities by growing and integrating chemicals with its world-scale refining operations, he added.

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