Arab OPEC members see oil at USD70 by 2015 end

24 Dec 2014

(MENAFN) The Arab members of OPEC said that they expect global oil prices to rebound to be between USD70 and USD80 a barrel by the end of next year as a global economic recovery will lead the demand of oil to increase again, Arab News reported.

The members said that the prices will be resume their normal position once the production of US Shale slows, in addition to higher demand from Europe and China as their economy begins to recover, with these factors expected to begin showing results by the end of 2015 and even in the absence of any production cuts by OPEC.

“˝The general thinking is that prices can’t collapse, prices can touch USD60 or a bit lower for some months then come back to an acceptable level which is USD80 a barrel, but probably after eight months to a year,” The Saudi Oil Minister said.

Despite Arab oil producers, particularly Saudi, maintaining in the past that USD100 is a fair price for oil, these countries are now saying that with the current state of prices, their focus is now on their market share in the market, leading them to make the decision not cut their production of oil.

Furthermore, OPEC said that if a decision to cut production was made, the organization should not be the only one following it, but should be joined by the non-OPEC producers such as Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan and anyone producing more than one million barrels per day, who should also cut or at least freeze their output if they wanted a stable market.