A senior Iranian oil official said a significant rise in crude oil demand is "improbable" until 2010 and the price per barrel of crude likely won't exceed $72 in 2009, the oil ministry's official Shana news agency reported late Saturday.
Crude's recent rise to as high as $70 a barrel at a time when oil stocks have been rising shows the rise "was not based on fundamentals," National Iranian Oil Co. executive director for international affairs Ali Asghar Arshi told Shana.
A significant rise in demand for crude oil and refined products currently seems "improbable," and any possible increase in demand doesn't seem likely until 2010, Arshi added, according to Shana.
Arshi said oil prices have been fluctuating like "sea waves," adding that he estimated the price of crude "will not exceed $72 in 2009," Shana reports.
On Friday, light, sweet crude oil for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 2.5%, or $1.54, to settle at $63.56 a barrel, the highest level since July 6. Crude hit an intraday high of $73.38 on June 30.
"Due to financial problems and the undesirable conditions of international banks, the oil (market's) current circumstances (have been) unusual, so it is hard to predict what will happen to the international oil market," Shana cites Arshi as saying.