Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani stated that the prices of crude oil prices may go up to $100 per barrel shortly because of rising costs of exploration and production.

He also said that business enterprises should prepare themselves for higher energy costs than what they were used to during the last 20 years.

In the Asian market, crude oil prices have declined to $74 per barrel as the European debt crisis spread worries about a slowing economic recovery and subsequent lower oil demand.

While addressing the 10th Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference, Mukesh said, "Experts talk of resilient oil growth, sluggish refining growth and higher marginal costs for new discoveries and production. All these factors are no doubt true, but I believe that the petrochemical industry will have to keep reinventing itself in response and prepare itself for a higher energy price than what it has been used to in the last two decades."

"$80-$100 is a norm in this ever changing global dynamics and we have to reset our thinking rather than hoping that oil prices will go back, and energy prices and feedstock prices will go back to what we were used to in the last two decades," he added.

He also said that business organizations should brace themselves or a three-digit oil price, which could be a reality very soon.

Mukesh was also optimistic on the financial system of the country and said that India will become a $5 trillion economic system, though it could take a little longer and do it by 2025, against some projections of 2020. (With Inputs from Agencies)