Industry chamber Assocham today said it expects crude oil prices to rise above $115 per barrel by the end of this financial year from the current $100 per barrel. .
The chamber expects high degree of speculation on uncertain events like tensions between oil rich economies or supply outages would keep the market volatile in near term, thereby attracting funds to manipulate the movements, it said in a paper "Crude not credible – scarcity, speculation and slowdown".
It also expects longer term price of crude oil prices to remain robust as demand supply balance is expected to remain tight. Energy demand from developing countries like China and India has increased substantially in past decade and is expected to rise further, the chamber said in a statement.
It, however, added that slowdown in the US economy has begun to affect other economies, especially developing ones, in terms of restricting their industrial activity because of increasing energy prices.
“Its immediate fall out in near-term would ease crude oil prices to around $90 per barrel, amplifying effect of US slowdown. Its repercussions on developing economies will dampen speculations which in the recent past caused crude oil prices going over $147 a barrel,” said Assocham President Sajjan Jindal.
