Members of the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable, a non-profit industry organisation committed to promoting ethics and best practices in the alternative investment industry, believe oil prices will remain steady for the rest of 2015.
Questions about oil and energy were posed to members at the Roundtable’s February event, “Global Implications of the Current Energy Environment.”
More than a third of members polled stated that the price of a barrel of crude oil would be in the USD50 – USD60 range by the end of 2015; approximately 22% of members forecast that the per barrel price would be USD40 – USD50; and 21% said that the price would settle between USD60 – USD70 a barrel. Less than 1% of those surveyed suggested the price would end the year below USD30 per barrel, while 7% said the price would rise to more than USD70.
When asked what type of energy companies provided the best investment opportunities in 2015, 30% said renewable energy companies were the most attractive and 29% pointed to independent oil & gas companies as strong investments. Pipelines followed with 15%, closely followed by large oil and gas companies at 14%. A total of 10% of members polled by the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable said that oil field services and offshore drillers presented the best investment opportunities this year.
Asked about the future of OPEC, 12% of members polled thought OPEC would cease to exist in 10 years, 78% said the organisation would be less powerful than it is today and 8% forecast that OPEC would be more powerful than it is today.
Roundtable members polled about oil consumption largely agreed that China would be the world’s largest consumer of oil in 10 years, with 63% selecting the country. India was second in the poll with 24%, the U.S. was third at 12% and Russia garnered less than 1% of the vote in the poll.
The survey was conducted at the February Roundtable event, which featured Tom Kirkwood, Partner, Bakken Energy Fund, Ken Locklin, Director, Impax Asset Management and Bloomberg Energy Analyst, Andrew Cosgrove.
