World's Largest Oil Trader Sees Oil Topping $80 By Year-End

Crude oil prices could rise to $80 per barrel by the end of this year and even top it, Vitol Group’s chief executive Russell Hardy told Bloomberg in an interview. According to Hardy, the gas supply crunch will spur demand for alternatives, lifting crude oil demand up by an additional half a million barrels daily in the fourth quarter. This, in turn, could motivate a higher supply increase on the part of OPEC+, the executive also said. “Can demand surprise us to the upside because of power switching? Yes,” Vitol’s CEO said.…