Kuwaiti experts predict steady rise in oil prices

Several economics experts yesterday said they expected oil prices to continue to rise through the second half of this year and to remain above the $50 mark per barrel due to increased worldwide demand for oil and due to the fact that not enough oil was on offer.
Most of the experts interviewed blamed the continued oil price increases on geo-political factors as well as the tough conditions imposed by some countries on oil refineries.
Kuwait’s representative in the Opec, Nawal Al-Fzeih said she expected oil prices to remain above the $50 mark throughout the second half of this year.
“Oil prices have been steadily increasing since 2004, except for some short and temporary periods,” she said.
She said that one of the main reasons for the oil price increases was the “lack of flexibility in the offer.”/P>

Regarding the oil and energy consumption in the Arab states, Oapec said that the consumption increased by 5.6 per cent reaching 8.1 million bpd in 2005 compared to 7.6 million bpd in 2004.
According to the report, the energy consumption in the Arab states is influenced by several factors, namely the tangible increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which rose by 15.8 per cent reaching $870 billion in 2004 and played an important role in the energy consumption in 2005.
It added that this major leap in the GDP is mainly due to the increase in the oil national production, which also resulted in the increase of the oil revenues that have a major impact on the economic development especially in the oil producing Arab states.
The demographic factor also has an influence on energy production in the Arab states, where the population increased by 2.1 per cent in 2005 to reach about 312 million people, out of which 200 million (64.1 per cent) live in the Oapec member states.

Kuwait Times