Oil price too low at US$115 a barrel, says Iran
Sunday, April 20, 2008
EVEN at US$115 a barrel, oil is priced too low, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in comments published yesterday adding that the commodity "should find its real value".
"Oil at US$115 a barrel in today's market is a deceiving figure, oil is a strategic commodity and should find its real value," the state broadcaster's website quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Friday.
New York's benchmark contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, surged US$1.83 to a record close of US$116.69 a barrel on Friday. It had earlier hit an intra-day all-time peak of US$117.
Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari, whose country is Opec's number-two oil producer and exporter, on Wednesday rejected calls from oil consuming countries for the cartel to take action to bring down prices. "The oil price has reached US$114 a barrel. When the price is suitable and supply is higher than demand, this shows the reason is somewhere else and we should deal with this other reason," he said.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries which produces 40 per cent of the world's oil has refused to raise its daily output quota which is currently fixed at 29.67 million barrels.
Ahmadinejad suggested that the sharp fall in the value of the US dollar was a driving force behind the rise in oil prices. "The dollar is no longer money, they just print a bunch of paper which is circulated in the world without any commodity backing." AFP
"Oil at US$115 a barrel in today's market is a deceiving figure, oil is a strategic commodity and should find its real value," the state broadcaster's website quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Friday.
New York's benchmark contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, surged US$1.83 to a record close of US$116.69 a barrel on Friday. It had earlier hit an intra-day all-time peak of US$117.
Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari, whose country is Opec's number-two oil producer and exporter, on Wednesday rejected calls from oil consuming countries for the cartel to take action to bring down prices. "The oil price has reached US$114 a barrel. When the price is suitable and supply is higher than demand, this shows the reason is somewhere else and we should deal with this other reason," he said.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries which produces 40 per cent of the world's oil has refused to raise its daily output quota which is currently fixed at 29.67 million barrels.
Ahmadinejad suggested that the sharp fall in the value of the US dollar was a driving force behind the rise in oil prices. "The dollar is no longer money, they just print a bunch of paper which is circulated in the world without any commodity backing." AFP
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