- GM Removes CEO Henderson; Whitacre is Interim Chief
- Who Were the Biggest Winners And Losers This Year?
- Look Ahead: Markets Count Down to US Jobs Report
- GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source
- US May Raise Rates Before Jobs Recover: Fed's Plosser
- Cramer: Watch Tech Stocks Wednesday
- Stocks Likely Don't Need Santa to Keep Rally Going
- Super Fantasy Christmas Gifts of 2009
- Larry Kudlow's Open Letter to Tiger Woods
- Unemployment to Peak at 10.5%: Moody's Economist
- 8 Stocks to Gain on Obama's Afghan Plan: Analysts
- BofA On Proposed Changes In The Housing Bailout Program
- The Future of The Media Landscape
- November Auto Sales Muddle Along
- Busch: What Obama Won't Say Tonight
- Stick with Equities—Avoid Emerging Markets: Laszlo Birinyi
- Pfizer Chomps On A Carrot
- Predictions 2010: Technology
Text Size 
The chairman of British oil major BP rejected as "apocalyptic" a prediction by the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom of oil prices soaring to $250 a barrel by the end of next year.
BP chairman Peter Sutherland told the European Policy Centre on Wednesday there was no problem with available supplies of fossil fuels in the medium term, but there was a need for more investment to develop those resources.
"(I) personally don't believe in some of the more apocalyptic predictions," Sutherland said when asked about Tuesday's forecast by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller. "I don't believe we're in for a spike to $250 as suggested in price per barrel."
Oil traded at just above $132 a barrel on Wednesday.
Sutherland also said he did not believe speculation was a major cause of the quadrupling of the oil price in the last five years, contrary to recent comments by Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.
The main factors were increased demand, a shortage of investment in developing new oil and gas resources and political instability risks in production areas such as Iraq, Venezuela and Nigeria, Sutherland said.
"I'm hopeful that we won't have dramatic further escalations in the price per barrel," the former European Commission and World Trade Organisation chief said.
Speaking in Deauville, France, on Tuesday, Gazprom's Miller said he expected the price of crude oil to almost double within 18 months and to take gas prices hither with it.
"We think it will reach $250 a barrel in the foreseeable future," he said.
Print
Email
- Will the Fed raise rates? Will the dollar continue its slide? CNBC experts weigh in on the year ahead.
- Goldman Sachs has forbidden employees from gathering in private holiday parties of 12 or more.
- Do you have what it takes to run your own business? Ask yourself these questions.
- Heavily armed pirates in Somalia have set up a sort of stock exhange to fund their hijackings.
- Since its launch in 1998, Google has become a primary force on the Internet. How much do you know about the company?
- A famed author has written all his work on an old typewriter that is now up for auction. The NYT reports.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes