OPEC oil producers will strive not to let oil prices rise too high, the group's president said today, a day after US crude surged to a 16-week high above $51.
"What I can stress is that we will strive, just like we have worked in 2004, for prices not to rise exceptionally and to work for the stability of prices and the continued guarantee of crude oil on world markets," said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, who is also OPEC's President.
OPEC meets on March 16th in Iran. Asked if OPEC could raise production in response to the price rise, Minister Sheikh Ahmad said "Prices yesterday rose again therefore we cannot support or reject."
Meanwhile oil prices held above $51 a barrel today, after a rally of almost 6 per cent on support from frigid weather in the north and sharp declines in the US dollar.
Prices struck a 16-week high yesterday as colder temperatures in Europe and the United States drove late-winter demand for heating fuel while analysts predicted another drawdown in US distillate stocks.
US crude oil prices for April shed 4 cents at $51.38 a barrel by early this morning.
The March contract, which expired yesterday, had surged $2.80 to settle at $51.15 in New York, breaking out of the $45 to $50 trading range for the first time since early January.
Oil prices have risen more than $5 in the last two weeks and are within striking distance of the record $55.67 a barrel hit last autumn, dealers said.