Despite slump, industry exec sees oil at $100

14 May 2010

Written by Bob Burton

Although crude oil is currently trading at a three-month low below $74 (€59) a barrel, one senior energy industry executive believes prices could hit $100 in the near future.

Speaking at a recent conference, the chairman of India's Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani said that a $80 to $100 trading range is common in today's climate, and the industry needs to adapt its strategy to accommodate these prices.

"We have to reset our thinking rather [than] hoping that oil prices will go back, and energy prices and feedstock prices will go back to what we were used to in the last two decades," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Despite a slump witnessed over the last fortnight, both crude and heating oil have sold within fairly small trading ranges, and upward momentum in the market has usually resulted in a corrective slump soon after.

This year, crude prices topped out at $87 a barrel before retreating back towards the $80 mark.

This week's downward slump in both crude and heating oil has been largely attributed to concern about the eurozone's mounting sovereign debt crisis.