Oil could rally to $60 by year-end: OPEC's al-Badri

ALGIERS (Reuters) – World oil prices could recover to $60 per barrel by the end of the year if demand in the global economy picks up, OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.

He said now was too soon to judge if fresh output cuts would be needed when OPEC holds its next meeting on May 28, and said it would take at least until the end of this year for inventories of stockpiled oil to return to normal levels.

But al-Badri said there was a glimmer of hope of an economic recovery and described as exaggerated an International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast earlier this month that oil demand in 2009 would be sharply lower than previously expected.

Asked to predict what will happen to the price of oil — currently around $51 per barrel — al-Badri said: “I think it will be $60 odd by the end of the year if we see some change on the demand side.”

“We are seeing at this time a glimmer of hope of recovery. If that’s the case I’m sure demand will be up,” he told Reuters during a visit to OPEC member Algeria.

Reuters