OPEC: $75-80 per barrel a 'good price'
- Source: Global Times
- [00:58 November 17 2009]
- Comments
The oil price of $75-80 a barrel is a satisfactory level, the president of OPEC said Monday, adding that the cartel may leave production unchanged at its meeting next month.
"$75-80 a barrel is a good price ... for the recovery of the world economy," Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, who is also Angola's oil minister, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on Gulf energy security in Abu Dhabi.
De Vasconcelos said the cartel may leave production unchanged at its next scheduled discussion in Luanda on December 22, "but there is a provision for an increase" in production.
The rate of compliance by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with their production quotas "is around 65 percent." This rate is satisfactory, he added.
OPEC expects oil demand to rise by 20 million barrels a day to 106 million by 2030, he said, but warned of uncertainty in the market.
"There is too much uncertainty in the market over such matters as future world economic growth levels, consumer country policies and technology," the OPEC chief said in a speech to the conference. "This makes it almost impossible to devise effective investment strategies for future production capacity, to meet the forecast rising levels of demand."
He said that one way to minimize the uncertainty is through consumer-country governments devising measures to ensure transparency and consistency in their policy making, which OPEC had already urged governments to do.
"This is one key area where efforts can be made to reduce uncertainty," he said.
AFP
