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Oil prices are projected to average around $75 this year compared with nearly $60 in 2009, when they were jolted by the 2008 global fiscal crisis. (SUPPLIED)
The current level of oil prices is fair and it will remain so even if they reach $90 a barrel, Opec’s secretary general was quoted on Thursday as saying.
Abdullah Al Badri said the 12-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls over 70 per cent of the world’s oil, can still influence the market but he added it was not to blame for the recent surge in crude prices.
“Oil prices are not high at present…prices are hovering between $75 and $85 a barrel, which is a reasonable price for producers and acceptable for consuming countries,” Badri told the Saudi Arabic language daily Okaz.
“They will remain fair even if they reach to $90 a barrel…the current prices are good for global economic growth...Opec does not want very high prices as the world economy has been though a recession period despite current recovery.”
Badri, a former Libyan oil official, said Opec should not be blamed for any sharp increase in crude prices, recalling the spike in prices in 2008 when they up to a record high of around $147 in late July that year.
“Opec assessed the situation and affirmed that it had nothing to do with that price surge, which was linked to speculation amidst rising market surplus.”
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