Majid Jafar, CEO of Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum, has predicted that oil could rise to $80 this year.
In an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jafar said on Tuesday that “unprecedented coordination, not just from within OPEC, but with non-OPEC” has tightened supply to the point where prices could rise by a further $10 in the coming months.
“[I] said here, last year, $60 over that year. We’re almost $70. We could be up to $80,” he said at the gathering of politicians and business leaders in Switzerland.
Jafar also warned of the potential impact of geopolitical events, noting that: “…the concern is, a shock like Venezuela, one country, with a major outage of production, could see a shock to prices, and, over the next few years, because of the huge underinvestment we had over the last few years, the concern is, as global growth continues, and the balance happens in the market, you could see a shock upwards on oil prices.”
Prices rises have come as a welcome relief to Gulf producers, where budget deficits soared to record levels in some countries after oil fell from $110 in June 2014 to below $28 in early 2016. It is currently hovering just below $70
The drop in demand prompted restrictions led by OPEC and Russia in 2016; a deal that last November was extended for a further 12 months.
Founded in 1971, Crescent Petroleum is one of the largest private oil and gas companies in the Middle East, with current operations in both the UAE and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Majid Jafar is the vice chairman of Crescent Group, as well as CEO of Crescent Petroleum, and managing director of the board of Dana Gas, its natural gas affiliate, which is listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Market (ADX).
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