Oil prices to be depressed for months

A quiet hurricane season in the US could be the latest factor bearing down on world oil prices and prices could stay depressed for months to come, a leading Irish-based expert has predicted.

A number of factors — ranging from a fight for market share raging between Opec and some non-Opec cartel producers, fields in southern Iraq pumping out more oil, and now the prospects for a quiet hurricane season later this summer that will keep rigs working around the clock in the Gulf of Mexico — have all acted to keep oil prices low.

In recent days, an apparent economic slowdown in China, one of the world’s top two energy consumers, that led to the devaluation of its currency, have come into play.