Roubini Sees Oil Price at $30 to $40 a Barrel in 2009

By Henry Meyer

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted last year’s economic and stock market meltdowns, said oil prices will trade between $30 and $40 a barrel this year.

“I see oil remaining throughout 2009 in the range of $30 to $40” a barrel, Roubini said in Dubai today.

Slowing world demand, reduced tension in the Middle East and settlement of Russia’s gas dispute with Ukraine could push prices toward last month’s four-year low of $32.40, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said yesterday.

Crude oil for February traded at $33.90 a barrel, down 7.2 percent, in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:38 a.m. Dubai time. The contract, which expires today, fell as low as $33.89 yesterday, when floor trading was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Oil has tumbled 77 percent from its July high of $147.27 as the global economy sinks into recession, straining the budgets of crude exporters. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Dubai, the second-largest sheikdom in the United Arab Emirates, have said they will post budget deficits this year. HSBC Holdings Plc said this week it is forecasting an average oil price of $45 a barrel for this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Dubai at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net