Yergin: Industrial demand for oil peaked in 2005If anyone should know about the outlook for oil, it would be Daniel Yergin. He's the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize, a marvelously documented history of the oil industry that frames the origins of OPEC.
Yergin was interviewed on a Bloomberg radio program this week. Here are excerpts:
--Oil demand: "We think the industrial world actually peaked out in terms of its oil demand in 2005."
--On the world economy: "We will have a slight rebound coming out of the recession but basically in a flat declining situation which can track very strongly with what is happening in Asia."
"Governments around the world are retaking the commanding heights, the strategic sectors of the economy" in response to the global recession. Policymakers are operating more like a "fire department" than developing a "master plan" to deal with the economic crisis.
--Price prediction: "Oil will remain in a $60-to-$100 a barrel range." Oil has recently been holding at about $80 a barrel.
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The book he wrote about oil was called The Prize not Commanding Heights.