A ‘Total’ Shift in the Oil Industry

With the Dow down 250 points and oil pressing its all-time highs, commodity investors may have missed the most important news bit hitting the airwaves Friday. Speaking to the Financial Times, Christophe de Margerie, CEO of the French oil giant TOTAL, said that the price of oil is high and is likely to stay high for the foreseeable future.

That may not seem like such a revolutionary statement … more like a statement of the obvious … but it’s actually critically important.


Here’s what Margerie actually said:

Demand is still strong in Asia, [and there is] strong demand in the Middle East,” Mr. de Margerie said. “So definitely the price will remain high, and we have to build our strategy on this.

The key lies in that last half of the sentence: “we have to build our strategy on this.”

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