Where are crude prices headed and what could they portend?

Crude prices have crashed to 20-month lows to below $59 a barrel. Victor Shum of Purvin & Gertz expects them to stabilise between 60 to $65 range. Shum feels that the weather will remain the focal point of the markets. He expects the prices to remain in the range of $60 to $65. He believes that if Asian economies continue to have a momentum then it will continue to drive the demand for oil.

On the other hand, Michael Metz, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co expects the prices to go up.

CNBC-TV18 shares with domain-b its exclusive interview with Shum and Metz

Victor Shum:
Where do you see prices are headed from here, are we going to see new lows, will they go below the $56-per barrel mark?

Victor Shum: I think the weather will remain the focal point of the markets. I think the markets really over reacted to the mild winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere yesterday.

Over the longer-term for example in the next six months, I expect prices to remain in the range from $60 to $65, one reason being that OPEC members will defend the $55 level and because of that, it will provide a strong flow to pricing-in on-going geopolitical tensions will tend to drive high buyers to the markets.

If Asian economies continue to have a lot of momentum then that will continue to drive oil demand even though world economy is expected to moderate a bit this year. So demand remaining healthy and OPEC maintaining supply discipline in pricing is expected to be therefore definitely strong in the next six months.