High Oil Prices Seen Sustained Over Long Term – EIA Chief

Global crude oil prices are likely to trade around $50 a barrel in real terms for the foreseeable future, the head of the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday. “Relatively high prices are going to be with us for a long time,” EIA Administrator Guy Caruso said in a speech to a meeting hosted by Lukens Energy Group, an energy consultanting firm.

Addressing the Cambridge Energy Research Associates annual conference earlier in February, Caruso said global spare production capacity of crude oil would increase 3 million to 5 million barrels a day by 2010 from between 1 million to 2 million b/d currently. OPEC will add between 4 million to 5 million b/d of new capacity in conventional oil by 2010 while non-OPEC countries will provide about 2.5 million b/d, Caruso said Feb. 7.

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