BP: Take It Easy

BP CEO Lord Browne yesterday made an attempt to calm the world concerning about oil crisis as his company published third-quarter profits had surged by 43% to almost $4bn, due to record crude prices.

Lord Browne confirmed that oil prices will stay very changeable, however he noted, "It is not helpful for the world to believe that it is running out of oil. We are evidently not."

All oil producers were increasing output and some had increased their spending on exploration and production from $62bn in 2000 to almost $100bn last year.
Lord Browne said that if demand returned to historic levels the supply-demand proportion would be back to "more normal levels" by 2008.

He acknowledged that if demand continued to grow at the same exceptional level as it had this year, the world would run out of spare capacity, but he added: "I think that would be a bit of a stretch, in my view. Oil is not immune from the general vagaries of the world economic situation."

In the medium term, he said, BP expected the oil price to stay above $30 a barrel "underpinned by Opec discipline and their needs for revenue."