OPEC Will Cut Output, Defend $100 Oil Price, Pickens Tells CNBC

(Bloomberg) — Oil prices are unlikely to drop below $100 a barrel because OPEC will cut production to support the price, billionaire hedge-fund manager Boone Pickens told CNBC today.

“OPEC likes it up here,” Pickens said in a televised interview from the New York Mercantile Exchange. “I think they’ll support it and cut production.”


The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet Sept. 9 in Vienna to review production targets.

Oil futures dropped to a five-month low on the Nymex as energy companies prepared to resume output at platforms in the Gulf of Mexico closed by Hurricane Gustav. Crude oil for October delivery fell $6.42, or 5.6 percent, to $109.04 a barrel at 1:09 p.m. Futures are down 26 percent from July’s record $147.27.

Today’s move “was a little heavier than I thought, but I figured it would go down,” Pickens said. “It’s the attitude of the market, and a little bit of news, bad or good, just takes us down further.”

Bloomberg