August 31, 2007
David O’Reilly speaks, and gives his view on $100 oil
David O’Reilly, the chief executive of Chevron, is this week’s guest on the FT’s view from the top video. If you would rather read than watch, there is also a transcript. He has plenty of valuable insights, including thoughts on the current prices of energy assets, relations with China after the Cnooc / Unocal saga, climate change policy, and the future of the oil majors in the face of competition from alternative energy.
A few particular nuggets stand out: he identifies Arctic exploration as "an area of focus for the company", but sounds pretty cautious about Iraq. "There [has to be] a set of laws and regulations that will govern how one makes investments there, and secondly, there has to be security, and neither of those are in place yet," he says.
And on the price of oil, he places his bet: $100 a barrel crude is not likely in five years, he thinks, but it is likely in ten years.
