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Market prepared for $100 oil: Iran Opec governor

TEHRAN - Oil consuming nations could tolerate oil at $100 a barrel if it guaranteed investment for long term supply, Iran’s Opec Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying on Friday.

“Sometimes it seems that the market has prepared for oil at around $100,” Iran’s students’ news agency ISNA quoted Khatibi as telling a conference.

“For the big consumers, security of supply is more important than the price,” he said, and that meant 
buyers accepted an oil price which gave producer countries incentive to invest.

“The aim of decreasing the Opec production ceiling after the global recession in the last two years was to create relative stability in the market and to create a balance between supply and demand because producer countries think the price should be at a level that would justify new investments,” he said.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia earlier this month shifted upwards the band from a price it has backed for around two years, saying oil at $70-$90 a barrel was comfortable for consumers. US crude was trading at just under $86 on Friday.

Khatibi said on Sunday that the market would not be harmed by $100 oil.