Chevron CEO says recovery will take 'most of 2009'

BOSTON May 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy may be at the bottom of its current downturn, but is unlikely to rebound substantially before the end of this year, the chief executive of Chevron Corp (CVX.N) said on Thursday.

"I do think that it'll take most of 2009 before we get all of this behind us," said David O'Reilly, chief executive officer of the second-largest U.S. oil company. "There is some sense that we are skating along near the bottom in some places and I hear people talking about green shoots, but as long as unemployment continues to rise, I think it will be hard to see consumer confidence build enough to have a sustained recovery."

O'Reilly told the Boston College Chief Executives Club that he believes it will be years before the world can develop sufficient alternative sources of energy to offset its current reliance on fossil fuels including oil, natural gas and coal.

Like other major oil producers, Chevron has been scrambling to cut costs following the collapse of oil prices from a historic high near $150 a barrel last summer. U.S. light crude oil futures CLc1 were trading up 2 percent at $57.44 on Thursday.

Chevron is the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N). (Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Dave Zimmerman)