US$200 oil possible if no investment in new supply, says Opec

London

OPEC's secretary-general says oil prices as high as US$200 a barrel are possible if producers fail to invest in new supply.

"If you don't invest in oil and gas, you will see more than US$200," Abdalla El-Badri said in an interview in London on Monday, without giving a time frame. West Texas Intermediate, the US crude benchmark, erased a decline of as much as 2.7 per cent following his comments.

Crude prices tumbled 46 per cent last year as Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said they would not curb output in response to a supply glut caused in part by surging US shale oil production. The International Energy Agency (IEA), the Paris-based adviser t…