Oil Prices Could Hit 80 Dollars In Next Two Years: OPEC

Oil prices could hit 80 dollars in next two years: OPEC

Agence France-Presse
March 3, 2005

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...e_050303134221

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KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Prices of crude oil could surge to as high as 80 dollars a barrel within the next two years but such a level would not last long, OPEC's acting secretary general was quoted as saying.

"I can affirm that the price of a barrel of crude oil rising to 80 dollars in the near future is a weak possibility," Adnan Shehab-Eldin told Kuwait's Al-Qabas newspaper.

"But I cannot rule out (the possibility) of oil prices rising to 80 dollars a barrel within the next two years," he said on Thursday.

"If the oil price rises to this level for one reason or another -- for example, interruption of supplies from a producing nation by one to two million barrels a day -- it is not expected to continue for long," he said.

Shehab-Eldin said a price rise to between 50-60 dollars a barrel for a period of two years or more will inevitably boost investments to increase supplies and lead to a drop in demand, eventually reducing prices.

World oil prices were mixed Thursday after reaching four-month highs in New York and London the previous day amid a rise in US crude stocks and jitters over increased global demand.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, fell 20 cents to 52.85 dollars a barrel in electronic dealing.

It had jumped 1.37 dollars to close at 53.05 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, the highest close since October 26.

In London on Thursday, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in April gained 18 cents to 51.40 dollars a barrel.

Shehab-Eldin said it was in the interest of OPEC and other countries not to see "big and surprising spikes in oil prices, but a gradual balance."

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/08/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gasoline prices will hit a new record high this spring, reaching a national monthly average of $2.15 a gallon, the government said Tuesday.
During the busy 2005 driving season, which runs from April through September, gasoline will average $2.10 a gallon, up 20 cents from the same period last year, the Energy Information Administration said in its monthly energy forecast.

The record high U.S. gasoline price was $2.06 a gallon set last May. However, when adjusted for inflation in today's dollars, the highest price for gasoline was $3.08 a gallon in March 1981, according to the Energy Department's analytical arm.

The current average pump price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped 7.1 cents over the last week to $2 a gallon, up 26 cents from a year ago, based on an EIA survey of service stations.

"Recently, gasoline prices have been rising in response to late winter rising crude oil prices and high rates of refinery utilization," the EIA said.

Strong gasoline demand is also pushing up motor fuel prices, the agency said.

The EIA revised up its estimate for gasoline demand during the April through June period by 30,000 barrels per day to 9.33 million barrels per day, compared to 9.16 million a year earlier.

Despite higher gasoline inventories, the number of days that motor fuel stocks could meet demand has been falling because of strong consumption, which the EIA said suggests "increasing short-term tightness for gasoline markets."

Treasury Secretary John Snow said over the weekend that energy prices are "way too high" and act like a tax on the economy.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon on Monday urged the Bush administration to lobby OPEC harder to lower oil and gasoline prices, which he said have "clobbered" consumers.

"OPEC is going to look out for OPEC. The question is whether this administration is going to stand up for the American consumer," Wyden said in a Senate floor speech. "I don't think it's right to let OPEC run roughshod over the American consumer."

The oil cartel meets on March 16 to discuss oil production policy. http://i.cnn.net/money/images/bug.gif

*sigh* the quote I put in red really bothers me ...

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