Oil Minister: Don't Bank on High Growth

Oil Minister: Don't Bank on High Growth

NewsMax.com Wires

AMMAN, Jordan – Saudi Arabia's oil minister warned Arab producers Sunday not to expect continued growth in prices and demand for oil.

Ali al-Naimi said prices could plummet if an economic crisis drives industrialized nations to find other sources of energy, citing the 1980s – when oil prices dropped by 80 percent after such nations reduced their dependency on oil and turned to alternative energy sources.

''Global economic growth may not continue at the same good momentum for years to come,'' al-Naimi said at the opening of a four-day conference of Arab energy ministers in Amman. ''We should be careful and not take expectations as indisputable, especially the continuation of big demand for oil and its prices remaining at the same level or increasing,'' he said.

Al-Naimi also cited the Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998, when oil prices fell by 50 percent, slowing Arab oil production.

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Yes I remember quite clearly when oil tanked. However the oil producing nations cut back on production in order to keep prices artificially higher than they should have been. So much for the 'free market' and pundits who keep telling us that the oil companies and oil producers don't 'fix prices'!