Enjoy those low gas prices while you can.
Oil and gas commodity prices, which have plunged since hitting record highs in July, will rise again by the second half of 2009, according to local economist Tucker Hart Adams.
“We’re going to see once again the upward movement in the price of coal, natural gas and oil,” Adams told industry officials this morning at the Westin Tabor Center. “But in the near term, I don’t think anybody has a clue what is going to happen to energy prices.”
Although gasoline consumption in the U.S. dropped after prices hit $4 a gallon this summer, Adams said global energy demand in nations such as China and India will drive prices up.
“It is a fairly constrained supply with growing demand,” Adams said. “As countries industrialize, as standards of living go up because people have more money, energy consumption rises.”
Adams’ remarks were made at a breakfast sponsored by the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, an industry trade association.
She said the U.S. economic recession won’t get much worse, but the recovery will be slow.
“It’s not going to be a good year in 2009,” she said. “Hopefully, by 2010, we will be back in a period of slow growth and we will see economic growth gradually accelerate.”
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
