“Oil prices increasing to 100 dollars (per barrel) would not hurt the global economy,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi, Iran’s representative at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), told the oil ministry news agency SHANA.
Khatibi also said that the current price range of 70 to 90 dollars was a “suitable” range.
“Not only producers, but consumers have reached this agreement that 70 to 90 dollars is a suitable price for oil because it encourages investment and does not hurt the global economy,” he said.
His remarks come days after OPEC revised upward its world oil demand growth estimates for both 2010 and 2011.
OPEC said it was pencilling in world oil demand growth of 1.32 million barrels per day (bpd) or 1.6 percent to 85.78 million bpd for the whole of 2010, compared with 1.3 percent previously.
And in 2011, oil demand would then increase by a further 1.17 million bpd or 1.4 percent to 86.95 million bpd, instead of the previous estimate of 1.2 percent, the cartel said in its latest monthly bulletin.
At Friday’s close, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for December, fell to 84.88 dollars a barrel, down 2.93 dollars from Thursday’s closing level.
London’s Brent North Sea crude for December dropped 2.47 dollars to 86.34 dollars in London trade.
Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer and holds around 10 percent of world oil reserves. Last month OPEC members elected Iran to the oil body’s presidency for next year, a first for the Islamic republic.
