Last week, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said demands for fossil fuels would peak in 2030, citing new projections.
Speaking on Monday morning at the World Petroleum Congress about the IEA projection, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, said such forecasts are not always reliable and said the IEA had "moved from being a forecaster and assessor of the market to one practicing political advocacy."
Smith agreed with Al-Saud's point of view.
"His advice was, you take a measure of prudence so that you don't end up creating disruption and instability in the markets and then you can always increase," Smith said.
"I think that that kind of approach actually is a lot more practical than trying to rely on predictions for what has become ... increasingly, unfortunately, a political activist organization."
