OPEC and corporations disagree as oil hits 12-month high of $80 per barrel

OPEC, the cartel of petroleum-producing countries, has clashed with the Western energy majors over the reasons that the oil price on Tuesday hit a year-high of $80 per barrel at one stage.

Abdalla Salem El-Badri , secretary-general of OPEC, blamed governments for failing to keep speculators in check, pointing out that there was no shortage of oil supplies around the world.

“I’m not an advocate of banning speculation, but they should not be going wild,” he said. “If they go wild, everybody goes wild.”

Mr El-Badri said that supplies currently kept on floating storage platforms would have to be used up before OPEC’s members lifted production, which has been sharply scaled back over the last year.

He said he was not comfortable with oil returning to prices above $100 per barrel when there was still plentiful supply.

But those sharing a platform at the Oil & Money conference in London, including Nobuo Tanaka, director of the International Energy Agency, Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, and Paolo Scaroni, dismissed the suggestion, pointing to economic recovery and a weak dollar behind increasing prices.

Telegraph Journal