Americas News
O'Sullivan: Doubtful We'll Ever Again See Sustained $100+ Oil Prices
Harvard University professor Meghan O'Sullivan doubts that the price of oil will ever climb to its previous heights, CBC News last week reported.
"Will prices be sustained over $100? Doubtful," the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, and former special assistant to U.S. President George Bush said during the Energy Visions 2015 event in Calgary.
"We have, from 2011 to 2014, had enormous production gains in the United States and production gains on the global level; that energy abundance will continue."
With IFO380 historically priced at around 70 to 75 percent of crude, $100 per barrel oil would put bunkers at $527 to $565 per metric tonnes (pmt).
But O'Sullivan's outlook is not shared by Robert Johnston, CEO of the Eurasia Group, who argued that given the continued rise in global energy demand $100-plus oil is possible and will help producers keep up with the demand.
"Ultimately, we'll need $100 oil," he said.
Johnston's sentiments were shared by Paul Stevens, a research associate at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, who thinks prices could surpass the $100 mark as early as this month because of the high level of volatility in the Middle East.
Rich Kruger, CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd., drew laughter from Energy Visions delegates when he remarked, "I don't have a clue where oil prices are going to be. My best guess is somewhere between where it is now and where it was before it started to fall."
Earlier this year, Total SA CEO Patrick Pouyanné said that oil prices will bounce back and that the negative effects for the industry of current oil prices may be overplayed.
