Business | Oil & Gas

Conoco sees US oil at $55-$65 in 2008

US oil prices will remain in the $55 to $65 range for the next year, ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva said in an interview.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 00:00 April 20, 2007
  • Gulf News

Los Angeles: US oil prices will remain in the $55 to $65 range for the next year, ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva said in an interview.

"The consensus view is somewhere between $50 and $65 a barrel and I don't take issue with people who are saying we are going to see it between $55 and $65," Mulva said in an interview on Tuesday with Reuters.

US crude futures were just over $63 a barrel on Wednesday and have ranged from a low of about $50 to a high of about $68 in 2007.

Also, he said, a narrow margin between refinery gasoline production and US demand means that unscheduled refinery outages will be felt more acutely this summer than usual.

"We find that compared to last year demand continues to go up so it is somewhat surprising," said Mulva. "I would have thought that there would have been more response as the price of oil represents nearly 60 per cent of the price of gasoline at the pump.

"As the price of oil and the price of gasoline goes up, we thought we'd see more of a response in less demand. We haven't seen that," Mulva said.

According to US government statistics issued on Wednesday, national gasoline supply fell for the 10th straight week, in part because consumption of gasoline is up 2.5 per cent from a year ago.

This comes even as the US average price of gasoline has gone up more than 9 cents per gallon to $2.88 a gallon, the EIA said.

"The normal peak for gasoline prices is in the summer when demand is the highest for petrol," EIA said.

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