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