World Won’t Be Able to Produce More Oil, Pickens Says

Boone Pickens, a billionaire energy investor, said world oil supply won’t exceed 85 million barrels a day because of high depletion rates of existing wells.

Pickens, 79, the founder and chairman of Dallas-based BP Capital LLC, said today in a speech at Georgetown University, that the price of crude oil will only continue to climb and demand will eventually be dampened.

“There is only 85 million barrels of oil globally in the market coming a day and I don’t think you can increase that 85 million,” Pickens said.

World oil demand during the four years ending 2008 is rising at an average annualized pace of about 1.4 percent, according to International Energy Agency forecasts.

Bloomberg