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Oil prices will climb to $100 a barrel, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp., said, as Arab oil ministers and officials gather in Cairo for a weekend meeting.
Ghanem told reporters that market conditions will determine whether OPEC decides to increase production quotas next year, without specifying a timeframe. Libya’s top oil official is in the Egyptian capital to attend a Dec. 25 meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“Oil will reach $100” a barrel, he said.
OAPEC, seven of whose members are also part of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was established in 1968 to foster the development of the petroleum industry in member states as part of an economic integration plan among Arab countries.
OPEC, which accounts for 40 percent of global oil supply, decided at its last meeting in Quito, Ecuador, on Dec. 11 to maintain its production target of 24.845 million barrels a day, set in 2008. OPEC’s next formal meeting is scheduled for June 2011.
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Quito on Dec. 11 that oil at $70 to $80 a barrel is a good price, that the market is stable and supply and demand are in balance, while Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said then that he was satisfied with prices near $90.
Oil in the $80s
Qatar’s Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah has said oil in the $80s is best for producers and consumers. Algerian Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi said at a conference in Doha on Dec. 1 that the market is in a “normal situation” and prices are likely to be stable for months.
Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange advanced 14 percent this year, and traded today at $90.70 a barrel. Prices will return to $100 for the first time in two years during 2011 amid rising global demand, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Algeria are all members of both OPEC and OAPEC.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ola Galal at ogalal@bloomberg.net Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
