OPEC wants oil to reach 70 dollars a barrel: chief

ALGIERS - OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said the cartel wants to see oil prices rising to more than 70 dollars a barrel, at a press conference here on Sunday.

By (AFP)

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Published: Sun 26 Apr 2009, 6:44 PM

Last updated: Thu 2 Apr 2015, 3:41 AM

‘The price of 50 dollars is not enough to cover investment costs for the future,’ El-Badri told reporters.

‘The price which allows reasonable and acceptable revenues is more than 70 dollars a barrel,’ he added.

El-Badri is in Algeria for talks with Energy Minister Chakib Khelil ahead of the next meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna on May 28.

Oil prices jumped above 51 dollars a barrel on Friday, as a flagging dollar and rising stock markets offset concerns about weak demand arising from the global economic downturn.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for June, gained 1.93 dollars to close at 51.55 dollars per barrel.

In its April monthly bulletin, the cartel revised down its estimate for world crude demand this year and predicted that a ‘devasting contraction’ in consumption would keep prices under pressure in the months ahead.


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