Many groups, including the International Energy Agency, predict that the world’s peak oil production is close, and global oil demand will drop starting in the next decade as more renewables come online.

Then there's OPEC: the oil cartel released its annual World Oil Outlook on Thursday, which forecasts about a 20% rise in demand for crude oil by the year 2050, and no peak oil in sight. What gives?

It should come as no surprise that OPEC projects a rosy view of the future of oil, said Ed Hirs, energy fellow at the University of Houston.

“You have to remember, OPEC is in the business of selling oil,” he said.

In its outlook, the group is banking on increasing demand in developing economies in Africa, India and southeast Asia, said Ellen Wald, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“They see huge population growth and urbanization occurring in these areas. And, as a general rule that leads to higher energy demand,” she said.

Think: natural gas for electricity, and gasoline for cars. But not all expert groups see it that way, said Arvind Ravikumar, an energy researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.

“OPEC is on a completely different planet,” he said.

Even some oil companies, including BP, predict oil demand to peak in the next decade, Ravikumar said. Developing economies will buy more cars, for example, but they may not burn gas. 

“In those countries, what you're gonna see is China trying to take over their auto industry by exporting all of its electric vehicles,” he said.

China is also investing in battery factories in those regions. “It’s not just selling cars. It’s exporting an off-ramp from oil dependence,” Ravikumar said.

And as for generating electricity, only some of the growth there will come from oil, said Matthew Zaragoza-Watkins, an economist at the University of California, Davis.

“If somebody wants to build the cheapest, most reliable electricity generating unit right now, it's probably going to be a combination of wind, solar, and natural gas,” he said.

Even OPEC’s top oil producer, Saudi Arabia, is investing billions in solar farms.