Pickens Predicts $100 crude in 2010, $300 by 2020
T. Boone Pickens. (image: Center for American Progress Action Fund via flickr.com)
As reported by bnet.com on Friday, oilman-turned-natural-gas-entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens is talking about oil prices spiking…again. The outspoken Texan predicted in October that oil would reach over $75 a barrel before the end of 2009. Now he’s claiming that 2010 will see even higher oil prices, with crude potentially reaching $100 per barrel. Pickens doesn’t see the buck stopping there either—he thinks that, within a decade, oil could go as high as $300 per barrel.
Pickens, through his company BP Capital Management, is invested heavily in natural gas and wind power, which may be why he continues to shout, from the rafters, about oil prices sky-rocketing. His stance is in conflict with a number of other experts, including oil expert and former U.S. government advisor Philip Verleger, who predicted in July that oil could go as low as $20 per barrel this year. Although crude has recently been hovering at $80 per barrel, it slipped to it lowest position since October on Friday. This dip could be the start of a price reckoning for crude, which many in the Verleger camp say has been overvalued for months now, as optimism about the country’s economic recovery on Wall Street has not been falling in line with the realities of what’s still happening on Main Street, where the recession hasn’t abated and unemployment continues to rise.
