LONDON, June 12 (UPI) -- The head of Britain's BP PLC, one of the world's largest energy companies, predicts oil prices will fall to about $40 per barrel.
BP Chief John Browne said increasing supplies, via new discoveries and more efficient extraction technologies, plus declining demand, via conservation efforts and development of alternative fuels, will chop the price of the world's most heavily traded commodity in the mid-term, the BBC reported Monday.
"We cannot really count on oil prices easing very much in the near future," Browne said in an interview with Der Spiegel. "But is very likely that oil prices will range in the medium term around an average of $40," he continued. "In the long run it could even be $25 to $30."
Among locations with big discoveries is the Caspian Sea, Browne said. He also said extraction efficiency is rising from about 45 percent overall to 50 percent or 60 percent.
