Current oil prices are not hurting the world economy, and are not as high as they seem for most countries because of the weakness of the US dollar, OPEC secretary-general Abdalla el-Badri said Saturday.
"This price we see at this time does not damage world growth," Badri told a press conference after OPEC agreed in Quito to leave current crude production limits unchanged for the time being.
"When we see this price in Europe, yes it is $90, but for them...it is very low because the dollar is very low," he said.
"Who is hurting? Our member countries, because we sell our crude in dollars and buy in euros. So you see how much we are losing. The dollar is coming down almost every day," Badri added.
"We are comfortable with the price now," he said.
The OPEC official said he was happy with the current fundamental balance in the oil market. OPEC, he said, was ready to act if it thought more oil was needed and could meet again before its next scheduled meeting in June if required.
"When you look at today, you have about seven days above the five-year average of stocks. There is plenty of oil in the market, there is no shortage," he said.
"When we see a shortage in supply that's when we will become concerned... but at this time the market is very comfortable to the consumers."
"If there is a problem in the fundamentals then OPEC must be concerned and will do its best to bring the market back to balance," he said.
"If the fundamentals are OK, there is enough oil in the market and the price shoots to $147/b as happened in 2008, this is not our problem, this is the speculation problem, we don't interfere."
"OPEC is always ready to meet when there is an imbalance in the market, to meet and bring back balance in the market," he said.
Badri was speaking after OPEC agreed, as expected, to maintain current crude output targets at 24.845 million b/d for the 11 members bound by quotas.
OPEC has scheduled its next meeting for June 2, 2011, in Vienna.
"This price we see at this time does not damage world growth," Badri told a press conference after OPEC agreed in Quito to leave current crude production limits unchanged for the time being.
"When we see this price in Europe, yes it is $90, but for them...it is very low because the dollar is very low," he said.
"Who is hurting? Our member countries, because we sell our crude in dollars and buy in euros. So you see how much we are losing. The dollar is coming down almost every day," Badri added.
"We are comfortable with the price now," he said.
The OPEC official said he was happy with the current fundamental balance in the oil market. OPEC, he said, was ready to act if it thought more oil was needed and could meet again before its next scheduled meeting in June if required.
"When you look at today, you have about seven days above the five-year average of stocks. There is plenty of oil in the market, there is no shortage," he said.
"When we see a shortage in supply that's when we will become concerned... but at this time the market is very comfortable to the consumers."
"If there is a problem in the fundamentals then OPEC must be concerned and will do its best to bring the market back to balance," he said.
"If the fundamentals are OK, there is enough oil in the market and the price shoots to $147/b as happened in 2008, this is not our problem, this is the speculation problem, we don't interfere."
"OPEC is always ready to meet when there is an imbalance in the market, to meet and bring back balance in the market," he said.
Badri was speaking after OPEC agreed, as expected, to maintain current crude output targets at 24.845 million b/d for the 11 members bound by quotas.
OPEC has scheduled its next meeting for June 2, 2011, in Vienna.
