Changing to natural gas for the large transport truck would cut 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, about half of what we buy from OPEC. This fits right in for Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE).
He noted that China’s demand is 8.1 million barrels and they are importing 4.1 million barrels. He thinks they have put their foot on about 5 billion barrels in total. He also noted that the US cannot get into and cannot compete against the state-owned oil companies. This is something that we covered recently for China’s insatiable appetite for securing oil supplies.
As far as a 2010 prediction Pickens is taking $85.00 per barrel and will likely average $80.00. He also noted you’d see $85 or $90 before the end of 2010 and you’ll ultimately see $100 again.
You can almost hear the case being built for a super-spike. Pickens even said you could ultimately see that $170.00, although he gave no time parameters on that and left an open door for any way out of that comment.
JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 6, 2009