Moscow: Russia`s most powerful oil official Igor Sechin said that oil prices could fall below $60 by mid-way through next year, speaking the same day OPEC met in Vienna and left its output targets unchanged.
Sechin, chief executive of Rosneft, Russia`s largest oil producer, in an interview with an Austrian newspaper also said U.S. oil production would fall after 2025.
On Thursday, OPEC decided against production cuts to halt a slide in global oil prices, sending benchmark Brent crude plunging to a fresh four-year low below $73 a barrel. Russia is not a member of OPEC.
Sechin, who met representatives from world oil powers in Vienna earlier in the week, said he believed oil prices could fall to $60 or below by the end of the first half of next year and that Russia had the potential to cut between 200,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of production if prices remained low.
