Climate Changed

Oil's Twilight? Here's One Investor View on How It Plays Out

  • Manager sees need for capital restraint as demand to plateau
  • Legal & General wants executives to prepare for ‘run-off mode’

A pump jack stands at dusk in the Permian Basin area in Texas.

Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

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The global oil industry’s foundation of ever-expanding demand will probably crumble and that may hurt profits sooner than expected, according to a London fund manager.

The sector faces stagnating demand within seven-to-ten years and that means it may lose the ability to bring itself back into balance when oil prices drop, Nick Stansbury, who helps oversee $1.3 trillion at Legal & General Investment Management Ltd. as head of commodities research, said in an interview.