Iran sees higher oil price, warns on supply

A senior Iranian oil official expects the price of crude to increase by five percent during the summer high gasoline demand season and by another five percent during the winter, the Isna news agency said yesterday.

“It is forecast that regarding the increase in gasoline demand in the driving season, the price of crude oil in this period will increase at least five percent and in the winter will have another five percent increase,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi, deputy director for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told Isna.
Khatibi also suggested that most Opec members were operating close to capacity. Iran is Opec’s No. 2 producer. “Therefore in the situation of an increase in the demand, there is no other way but to use the reserves,” he said.

“In the most optimistic situation, in the future supply and demand will seriously get close to each other and we will not have any additional supply,” he said. “In the pessimistic situation, oil demand in winter will reach an amount which supply can not meet … “

The Peninsula