Oil prices to top $100 barrel by end of 2010: Pickens

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Tuesday that oil prices will rise above $100 a barrel by the end of 2010 as the global economy recovers.

Oil prices in the $40 a barrel range are “not going to be around much longer,” Pickens told a gathering at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston.

Oil prices have tumbled from over $147 a barrel in July to about $48 a barrel on Tuesday as demand in the United States and other developed countries slows due to the global economic crisis.

By late 2010, Pickens sees a rebound in oil demand sparked by a global recovery, pushing prices higher.

If the U.S. continues to rely on imported oil for 70 percent or more of its supply, prices could reach $200-$300 per barrel in another decade, Pickens said.

Reuters