Reg Curren, Bloomberg Published: Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Crude oil will average US$80 to US$85 a barrel in the coming year, T. Boone Pickens said in Calgary Wednesday.

Natural gas will average about US$7 per million British thermal units, Mr. Pickens, 81, the founder and chairman of Dallas- based BP Capital LLC, said at an event sponsored by the city's Chamber of Commerce.

"I bought a 12-month gas strip for US$6.02 the other day and I expect to make US$1 on it," Mr. Pickens said during the presentation to about 700 people.

Mr. Pickens was not specific about which strip contract he invested in. A calendar strip representing the average price of natural gas futures contracts for delivery in 2010 on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 5.7 cents to US$6.488 per million Btu at 4:03 p.m. Wednesday.

The billionaire hedge-fund manager is promoting an energy plan that relies on U.S.-produced natural gas to cut the country's dependence on foreign oil.

Plans to build a pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 states don't make sense, Mr. Pickens said. Gas found in shale deposits in Texas is more accessible, he said.

Shale gas is locked in non-porous rock that made the reserves inaccessible until producers perfected new drilling technologies in the 1990s.

Bloomberg.com