Top oil traders warn prices could breach $200 a barrel

Top oil traders warn prices could breach $200 a barrel

Some of the world’s most respected oil traders have predicted crude prices could climb beyond $200 a barrel this year owing to a growing international boycott of Russia and a lack of alternative sources of supply.

Pierre Andurand, one of the sector’s best-known hedge fund managers, said supplies of Russian oil into Europe would disappear in the aftermath of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to a lasting reshaping of global energy markets.

“Wakey, wakey. We are not going back to normal business in a few months,” he told the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne. “I think we’re losing the Russian supply on the European side for ever.” Crude could even hit $250 barrel this year, double current levels, he said.

Other veterans of the oil market speaking at the conference agreed that Russian crude and refined products such as diesel would not return to the European market any time soon, even if a ceasefire with Ukraine were agreed.

Analysts have estimated as much as 3mn barrels a day of Russian oil could be lost from the market.

Doug King, head of RCMA’s Merchant Commodity Fund, predicted that oil prices would soar to between $200 and $250 a barrel this year. “This is not transitory. This