BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- The head of China's biggest offshore energy producer said Tuesday he thinks oil prices are likely to return to the $70-$80 barrel range, though he did not give a timetable and said low prices could continue for some time.

"We see, and there is mostly consensus in the industry and the financial market of around $70 or $80 a barrel," CNOOC chairman Fu Chengyu said. "But I believe low prices will last for some time."

He made the comments at a conference on Chinese business in this northeastern Spanish city. Oil prices have fallen below $60 a barrel after hitting a high of more than $147 a barrel earlier this year.

Fu said the current price level is based on a "panic," but would linger until confidence is restored in the market.

"When the oil prices were at $147 a barrel, and the same today when they are at $50-something a barrel, all of those are not based on the fundamentals which are demand and supply," he said. "It is not reasonable to have such high and low oil prices."

His comment came amid news that another Chinese oil executive was warning of waning demand for fuel back in China due to the global financial crisis.

China National Petroleum Corp., the country's biggest oil company, has suffered a "fairly big impact," its president, Jiang Jiemin, said in a Nov. 14 speech to employees, according to a transcript on the company's Web site. Jiang gave no details.

"Especially since September, the impact is more obvious and prominent. Basically, it is reflected in such things as a sharp shrinking of consumer demand," Jiang said, according to the transcript.

China's economic growth slowed in the latest quarter to 9 percent, down from 11.9 percent last year.