AFP: Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Thursday that the world market was saturated and that OPEC was meeting demand, official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Thursday that the world market was saturated and that OPEC was meeting demand, official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
"There is enough oil in the market; there is no problem with oil supply and there is enough capability to supply as much oil as the global market has the capacity to receive," IRNA quoted Nozari as saying.
"But at the moment, the market is saturated."
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries supplies oil based on the needs of the market, added Nozari, whose country is OPEC's second biggest producer.
Nozari's comment came amid skyrocketing oil prices that have raised concerns among consumers.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, was traded at 135.40 dollars a barrel on Thursday.
The contract had jumped 5.07 dollars to close at 136.38 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
OPEC maintains that the oil market is well supplied and that current prices do not reflect the fundamentals of supply and demand.
Saudi Arabia, a close Western ally, has come under huge US pressure to boost output to help end volatility.
The oil kingpin has proposed a June 22 meeting in Saudi Arabia for the world's biggest oil producers and consumers to discuss record-high crude prices at head-of-state level.
Iran on Tuesday gave a cautious welcome to the Saudi meeting saying it could be useful long as the meeting examined the root causes of high prices.
