Looking at fundamentals: Jim Mulva
Mulva sees oil price rebound
ConocoPhillips boss Jim Mulva said he expected spare capacity in oil markets to be eroded and prices to recover before long, due to strong underlying growth in global energy demand.
"We are unlikely to have long production surpluses and weak oil prices," Reuters quoted Mulva saying at the Oil & Money conference today.
Mulva added that the cost for oil companies of replacing the oil they pump with new reserves had fallen in the past year, but not as much as the drop in oil prices.
He also said he does not expect another round of consolidation in the industry as happened in the 1980s and 1990s.
Mulva said oil companies were leaner than in the past, which meant there was little room for synergies from putting companies together, and that politicians could also oppose big tie-ups.
"I don't see a really compelling case for consolidation like we saw in the 1980s or 1990s," he said.
Mulva said tie-ups did nothing to solve the biggest challenge facing the industry, which is to add new reserves.