Oil and Gas

OPEC: Oil prices to stay below $100 for next decade

Oil prices get 'reality check': Platts
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Oil prices get 'reality check': Platts

Oil prices will remain below the psychologically important $100-a-barrel mark until at least 2025, according to a draft report by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), seen by The Wall Street Journal.

In its most optimistic scenario, OPEC, which represents 12 oil-producing countries, forecast that oil will sell for around $76 per barrel in 10 years' time, according to the report.

However, it warned that crude oil could cost as little as $40 per barrel in 2025.

"$100 is not in any of the scenarios," said a delegate at an OPEC presentation last week in Vienna, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The oil ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attend the opening session of the Arab Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi.
Marwan Naamania | AFP | Getty Images

OPEC has refused to cut its output following a 60 percent crash in oil prices that began in June last year. Brent and WTI crude prices have partially recovered from the lows seen at the start of 2015 to trade at around $65 and $59 per barrel respectively.

The draft report seen by the newspaper recommended that OPEC reintroduce the quota system it largely abandoned in 2011, which limited how much oil each member country could produce.

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