Oil price to hit $150-170 in coming months: OPEC

The president of OPEC, Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil, predicted on Thursday that oil prices would rise to $150-170 a barrel during the northern hemisphere summer. helil insisted on Tuesday that oil producers saw no need to raise supply, blaming high prices on factors outside their control such as US pressure on Iran and the weak US dollar.

Speaking after talks with European Union nations, Khelil said the cartel of oil states believes it is pumping enough oil to supply current demand and has stocks and extra capacity to spare.

Khelil said prices in the next few weeks depend largely on how the US deals with Iran and the strength of the US dollar.

The US, supported by the European Union, wants Iran to permanently halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can give Iran the capacity to produce materials for a nuclear bomb if it wanted. Iran denies that, saying it only wants to produce energy.
"I think the market is probably waiting to see how the dollar is going to evolve in July, how the geopolitical situation is going to evolve with the threats made on Iran," Khelil said.

"I don’t think OPEC can do much about the geopolitics," he said. "I think some other people have to do something about that because if you have threats in areas that are producing areas or potentially producing areas, then of course the market will react to it."

The president of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, - based mostly in the Gulf region - could only handle one factor behind high prices: making more oil available.

"I think we are doing that and we think we are doing that very well," he said. "All you need to do is to look at the data to be convinced that the market is well supplied in oil and that we have enough surplus capacity and that we have enough stocks in the market."

The 13 OPEC members have for years gathered regularly to establish production quotas. They control some 40 per cent of world oil output. Despite the current surge in oil prices and growing global demand, they have refused as a group to boost production.

However, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, has said it would add 200,000 barrels per day in July to a 300,000 barrel per day production increase it first announced in May, raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels.

OPEC members include: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.