Oil spike to last through 2008: OPEC president

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Oil prices will stay at current high levels for the rest of this year due to speculation and geopolitical tensions, Algerian state media on Monday reported OPEC President Chakib Khelil as saying.

Prices could retreat in 2009 with a recovery of the U.S. dollar in foreign exchange markets following the election of a new U.S. president, and as fundamentals reassert themselves as major market forces, he was reported as saying by government newspaper El Moudjahid and state news agency APS.


“Just like the current surge in oil markets, the (world economic) crisis, will last until the end of the year,” he was quoted as saying by El Moudjahid.

“The oil market will stay above $100 during the current financial year, according to the assessment of Mr Khelil,” APS said in a report on his remarks to Algerian reporters on Sunday.

Reuters