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Oil shekhs banking on price of oil rebounding to $80 next year

Friday, November 28, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

ABU DHABI — Gulf Arab producers are wishing and hoping for a significant rebound in the price of crude oil.

Gulf analysts said the price of crude oil, now around $50 per barrel, could rise rapidly in 2009. They said by the end of next year the price could stabilize at $80 per barrel, and then rise to $90 by 2012.

"By 2010, the price of oil will come back to the 2005 levels of $70 to $80 per barrel and in the long term will further rise to between $80 and $90," former Saudi Aramco executive vice president Saddad Al Husseini said.

Energy analysts and executives said China would consume an increasing amount of oil, keeping the price of energy high. They said most Gulf Cooperation Council states would seek to maintain their 2009 budgets on the assumption that the oil price slump would be short-lived.

"What is expected is that what markets, oil and other, are going through is a temporary phase which could last one year, a little less or a little more," Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al Assaf said.

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