Oil prices to range between $55 to $70: BP's CEO Dudley

By Huseyin Erdogan

ISTANBUL

BP Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley expects oil prices to rise to between $55 and $70 per barrel of oil for the rest of the decade, he said on Tuesday, in Istanbul.

Speaking at the World Energy Congress, of which Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner for 2016, Dudley said that oil producers should focus on oil supply and demand rather than oil prices.

"Rather than thinking about oil prices, we need to focus on supply and demand, which Fatih Birol [Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency] said yesterday. Right now it is pretty much imbalanced,” Dudley said.

He also underlined that oil demand is growing in China, North America and in Europe.

Global oil prices reached $53.17 at 20:04 GMT on Monday after Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro expressed their positive support for OPEC's output cut.

Speaking at the World Energy Congress 2016, Putin said that Russia supports OPEC's decision to limit oil production. Maduro also stated that OPEC needs to take a decision on stabilizing oil prices.

Last week, oil prices had kept above the $50 mark with hopes that OPEC would realize a production freeze deal at the upcoming November meeting.

"It is not good for the world for the price of a barrel of oil to be at $25 or at $100 per barrel," according to Dudley.

BP, whose roots started in Iran, signed a crude oil agreement with Iran last week.

Dudley said that he does not know the details of the contract yet with Iran, and was not at liberty to comment on further trade plans with the country.

"We are going to have to be careful (in trading with Iran) as we do not want to violate sanctions," he said.

"It (IRAN) is a large oil and gas province. We had signed an agreement for trade in crude oil. It is a good step to learn how to work with Iran, but we do not have any specific plan for now," he concluded.