With a barrel of oil sitting just above $50, Energy Voice has rounded up some boardroom predictions for future crude prices.
Shell’s Ben van Beurden was cautious when asked earlier this year about future oil price estimates.
He said the supermajor’s strategy is not reliant on a particular oil price.
BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley similarly played his cards close to his chest.
He said that BP was planning on prices staying around the $50 to $60 mark for “the next five years”, vowing to keep the company’s capital spending within the relevant threshold.
Claudio Descalzi , the chief executive of Italian oil and gas giant Eni, previously said that he thinks the price will go up – but it may take some time.
In Eni’s “2017–2020 Strategic Plan” the group said it expected to see a gentle rise in oil prices in the coming years, giving a forecast of up to $70 per barrel by 2020.
American major ExxonMobil was a little more bullish. After its long-awaited investors day earlier this year, Credit Suisse upgraded the firm’s rating – with its considerable interests in US shale and a predicted price rise to $65 oil.
Total’s Patrick Pouyanne has also played a careful game. The French supermajor was one of the first of the Big Six to recover from the downturn, putting cash into new foreign assets at the start of the year.
But Pouyanne also issued a warning that US shale could pose a danger to any significant increases in the short to medium term.
Texas based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation CEO Al Walker is a little more pessimistic.
Speaking earlier this month at a conference in Houston he expressed doubts oil will extend beyond the $50-$60/bbl range before the end of the decade.
Statoil’s Chief Executive Eldar Saetre has been quoted as saying oil prices could climb to $80 a barrel by 2018.
He said: “We think there will be some time before we will see a balanced market. But we have also been clear about our expectation for the oil price to rise again and we have indicated around $80 before 2018.”
The Norwegian operator said before that oil prices need to be at $80 in 2017 and $60 in 2018 for the company to have the free cashflow to maintain a dividend payment.
What do you think will happen to the oil price in the near future?
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