Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Predicting energy prices is ``more difficult'' now because of the lack of sufficient information from emerging economies, the head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

``No one could've predicted'' recent record energy prices, Guy Caruso, administrator of the agency, said today at a press conference in Washington sponsored by Platts. Caruso, 66, announced earlier this month that he will step down on Sept. 3 as head of the agency, which is the statistical arm of the Energy Department.

Crude-oil futures prices reached a record $147.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on July 11. Members of Congress have asked the agency to review its modeling system, saying forecasts have been ``dramatically lower'' than current prices.

The agency currently forecasts oil prices will be between $120 and $130 a barrel for the rest of the year. According to the agency's annual energy outlook, prices will fall to a low of $57 a barrel in 2016 and then reach about $70 in 2030.

Caruso said he ``certainly can understand the frustrations reflected by the criticism'' of the agency's price forecasts.

``No one could've predicted all of these events on the political side or even the kind of economic growth that the emerging economies have achieved,'' he said.

Price forecasting is more difficult now because ``the emerging economies are playing a more important role in energy markets,'' Caruso said.

``Those are the areas where data and other information on their energy economies is worse'' than information from the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

He mentioned the difficulty in getting information on energy use from places such as China. ``The data isn't there,'' he said.

The agency's price forecasts are ``valuable as a tool'' to help model the effects of changes in the law, Caruso said. ``I wouldn't think it's that useful as a predictor in order to plan investments or things like that.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 26, 2008 15:56 EDT