Hunt CEO: ‘Higher Price Here to Stay…Market Will Sort Things Out’

Hunt Oil Co. chief executive Ray Hunt is an economist, not a geologist or an engineer, like so many of his peers.

So when he says of oil markets, “This higher price regime is here to stay,” he talks about gross domestic product, not difficult drilling conditions or expensive oilfield equipment.



Mr. Hunt said in a speech Thursday to the Texas Energy Council that he’s long predicted that higher oil prices would persist because people in developing countries are close to a tipping point in energy use.

With a small boost to the economy in, say, Vietnam or China, some people can buy their first cars or washing machines and begin using a lot more fuel, boosting global oil demand and prices. The same small economic gain in the U.S. wouldn’t increase energy consumption so much, he said.

Further, oil and gasoline prices seem so high to Americans because the dollar is weak. Translate the prices to the stronger euro, and fuel is more affordable, said Mr. Hunt, who earned a degree in economics from Southern Methodist University, where he spoke Thursday.

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