Prince Alwaleed bin Talal: Saudi Arabia Is Not Using Oil Price To Impact Fracking Industry In U.S.

Though Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has most of his fortune invested in companies like Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) (of which he is the largest individual shareholder) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), he still has a sizeable businesses in the oil dependent Saudi Arabian economy.

He was recently on CNBC to discuss whether Saudi Arabia is influencing oil prices and the outlook for oil.

"I can assure you that Saudi Arabia is not using the oil price right now to impact the fracking industry in United States," Prince Alwaleed said. "Now, what happened in the price of oil is a confluence of events: you had the oversupply in United States and the whole world and you had growth faded away in Japan, China and Germany."

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He continued, "So there’s oversupply and the growth and demand is not so high. So, all those events caused the price of oil to go down. Clearly as the side effect of that and inevitable that some oil rigs in United States will be uneconomical and will have to shut down, but I can assure you also that we feel the pain in Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia budget depends 90 percent on oil.

"So, we also feel the pain a lot here," he said.

Where Do You See Oil Heading In The Future?

"It's inevitable that the price of oil, where it is right now below $50, that some oil rigs in United States and the fracking industry would be uneconomical and they have to shut down and we are already seeing indications of many of these rigs being withdrawn," Prince Alwaleed said. "So, until and unless we reach the equilibrium point between supply and demand, the price may fluctuate between the $40 and $50 range."

"However, in the medium to long-term, it's inevitable that the price of oil may go up a little more, but as I said that I think we'll never see the price of oil again at $100."