WASHINGTON - Global oil markets are well supplied and there is no need for OPEC to boost output to tame near record oil prices, Qatar's oil minister said on Tuesday.
"The supply is very efficient and very balanced and we don't think this is a product of supply," Abdullah al-Attiyah, oil minister for OPEC member Qatar told Reuters.
U.S. crude oil futures hit a record near $140 a barrel on Friday, jumping more than $11 in it's biggest gain in dollar terms on record. Since January, oil prices have soared nearly 40 percent and are up sixfold in the last six years.
Attiyah blamed the high prices on a weaker U.S. dollar, market speculation and unspecified geopolitics.
"This is gambling from day-to-day, $10 up and down, and I have no answer for it,"Attiyah said.
Attiyah said he will meet with U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman later this week in Washington.
"The supply is very efficient and very balanced and we don't think this is a product of supply," Abdullah al-Attiyah, oil minister for OPEC member Qatar told Reuters.
U.S. crude oil futures hit a record near $140 a barrel on Friday, jumping more than $11 in it's biggest gain in dollar terms on record. Since January, oil prices have soared nearly 40 percent and are up sixfold in the last six years.
Attiyah blamed the high prices on a weaker U.S. dollar, market speculation and unspecified geopolitics.
"This is gambling from day-to-day, $10 up and down, and I have no answer for it,"Attiyah said.
Attiyah said he will meet with U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman later this week in Washington.
