KUWAIT, July 5 — Kuwait wants to see the price of oil stay above US$60 (RM212) a barrel, the OPEC member’s oil minister said today.
“We will be watching the market very closely,” Kuwait’s Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters at parliament. “We would not like to see the price go below a certain level so it at least meets our budgetary requirements.”
When asked what that level was, Sheikh Ahmad said “US$60, at least for Kuwait.”
US crude slipped to a four-week low of US$65.63 a barrel on Friday as the jobless rate in the United States rose to a 26-year high.
Crude fell nearly US$8 in four days last week from an eight-month peak of US$73.38, on signs the economy of the world’s top energy consumer was still struggling.
Speculation and changes in the strength of the dollar were playing a large part in oil price volatility, Sheikh Ahmad said.
Last week, the Gulf Arab state’s oil minister said a price over US$100 a barrel would hurt the global economy.
A breach of US$100 would not necessarily bring a boost in oil supply from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Sheikh Ahmad said today.
“I can’t increase production without seeing the price and condition of the world economy,” Sheikh Ahmad said. “All these have to be taken into account.”
OPEC members pledged to cut supply by 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last year, as they tried to match what they pumped with what the shrinking global economy consumed.
The group has kept those output curbs in place this year, and next meets to discuss supply policy in September.
OPEC was satisfied with the price of oil, OPEC President Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said on Friday. — Reuters
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