As drillers hunker down, Wall St sees oil bounce

Houston

THERE is a growing disconnect between Houston and Wall Street over when slumping oil prices will recover.

Beaten down by a seven-month rout that slashed crude prices from over US$147 a barrel last summer to US$42 a barrel, producers are bracing themselves for oil to remain at about US$60 a barrel for as long as the next five years or so, according to executives gathered this week at the industry's biggest annual conference.