23 January 2015, News Wires – The boss of oil giant BP Bob Dudley reportedly believes oil prices could remain low for up to three years.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Davos forum on Wednesday to the BBC, BP chief executive Bob Dudley said his company was planning for low oil prices for years to come, warning he believed oil prices could remain low for up to three years.
Dudley said historically world oil prices have fluctuated, and sometimes have remained low for a number of years.
He expects to see current low prices for at least a year, and that the UK supermajor must plan for that.
“Companies like us, at BP, we’re going to need to rebase the company based on no guarantees at all that the price will come back up,” he told the BBC.
“We have to plan on this [price] being down, and we don’t know exactly what level, but certainly a year, I think probably two and maybe three years.”
Sustained low oil prices are also likely to cause “stress” on oil producing countries such as Norway, Russia, Venezuela, Scotland, Nigeria and Angola, he said.
BP has been investing billions in its largest projects in the North Sea like the Clair field but “their economics are challenged now with these new prices,” he warned.
“But we’re in the North Sea for the long term. We have a large workforce in Scotland. There will be activities that we needed to pare back anyway,” he said.
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