OPEC chief says 80-dollar oil won’t last

VIENNA, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) – OPEC chief Abdalla Salem El-Badri said Friday the current oil price of 80 dollars did not reflect fundamentals and was unlikely to last long.

“I don’t think 80 dollars (per barrel) will last,” El-Badri told journalists here. “The fundamentals do not support the price.”

El-Badri said that the current price of oil was “too high.”
But OPEC did not have a target for the oil price, he said.

The price of oil surged to record highs this week even after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced it would pump an extra 500,000 barrels per day from the start of November as a signal of the cartel’s willingness to respond to supply fears in consumer countries.

One-off factors such as the hurricane season were behind that, El-Badri argued.

But still the cartel was scratching its head over the exact reasons.

“We’re all asking ourselves why. Perhaps you (the markets) know something we don’t.”

Asked whether OPEC at its next meeting in December would discuss further raising output if the oil price persisted at current levels, El-Badri was tight-lipped.

Zawya