Gazprom Chair Predicts Return to $100 Oil

OAO Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller forecast Saturday that oil prices will again spike through $100 per barrel due to speculation in oil futures markets.

Speaking to a group of Russia experts known as the Valdai Club, Mr. Miller said that Gazprom used goverment forecasts for its own budgets and planning, but that in his view oil would break $100 again.
Mr Miller made news while oil prices were soaring before the global economy went into recession, when he predicted oil would hit $250 — a price never reached.

At the same event OAO Rosneft chief executive Sergei Bodanchikov said his company was using a 2010 forecast of $55-$60. Mr Miller said $100 oil would benefit Gazprom in the short term, because gas prices are tied to oil prices. But he called for changes in oil futures markets to reduce price volatility, which he said was more important to oil and gas companies that have to plan years and even decades ahead to invest in future production.

Challenged over whether Gazprom would have enough production to meet demand that’s expected to grow over the medium term within Russia, in Europe and as it completes plans to supply China, Mr. Miller said he was confident it would. He cited reserves of 33 trillion cubic meters of gas, as well as unexplored resources in Russia’s arctic shelf.

“Our reserves are not dropping but growing. We have no questions about it,” he said.

Wall Street Journal (through Google News)