Qatar's oil minister said Wednesday there is no need for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to call an emergency meeting to address the present crude oil price, which has hovered above the $100-a-barrel mark for most of the month.
Qatar
's oil
minister said Wednesday there is no need for Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries to call an emergency meeting to address the present crude
oil price, which has hovered above the $100-a-barrel mark for most of the
month.
"OPEC does not and still doesn't think there should be an emergency
meeting," Mohammed Al Sada told reporters in
Doha
,
Qatar
's
capital. "The market is at a very comfortable situation in terms of supply
and reserve."
Fears over escalating unrest in
Libya
and
turmoil elsewhere in the
Middle East
have
pushed up crude prices from levels around $90 a barrel in recent weeks.
Libya
,
which produces around 1.6 million barrels a day of oil, has almost halted
production of crude due to the unrest in the North African country.
Crude oil futures were down slightly Wednesday as traders anticipated a large
gain in
U.S.
oil
inventories in a government report due later in the session. At 1114 GMT, the
front-month May Brent contract on
London
's ICE
futures exchange traded 43 cents, or 0.4%, lower at $114.73 a barrel. Front-month
May futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 49 cents, or 0.5%, at
$104.30 a barrel.
Al Sada, who replaced
Qatar
's
veteran oil minister Abdullah Al Attiyah in January, said OPEC was keeping a
close eye on developments in the market but added that "as of today the
situation is very comfortable."
He declined to comment on reports that Qatar had struck a deal with rebel
fighters in Libya to market crude from oil fields that are no longer under the
control of the North African country's embattled leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
So far, details of the reported deal have only come from rebel fighters in
Libya that now operate some of the oil fields in the east of the country, but
it is still unclear what any agreement would entail and to what extent the
Qataris have offered their services.
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