OECD commercial oil stocks remained above five-year average: OPEC Secretary General

IANS | 09 May, 2008
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that there was no shortage of oil in the world market and the organisation would act if the market shows need for any measures, WAM news agency reported Friday.

"The organisation will continue to strive for a stable and balanced market, with prices that reflect fundamentals, and are favourable to both producers and consumers," OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri said Thursday.

He added that the petroleum prices had become increasingly volatile in recent months, mainly because of financial market developments and the increased flow of speculative funds into oil futures.

"The turmoil in some global equity markets and the considerable depreciation in the US dollar have encouraged investors to seek better returns in commodities, particularly in the crude oil futures market. This has driven prices higher," El-Badri said.

He added that there was clearly no shortage of oil in the market and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) commercial oil stocks remained above the five-year average, with days of forward cover at a comfortable level of more than 53 days.

El-Badri said that US crude inventories rose by almost six million barrels in the last week and that was further indication of oil supplies being plentiful.

The secretary general added that OPEC member countries continued to produce more than 32 million barrels a day (mb/d) and a number of new oil projects have started to come on-stream and the spare capacity continues to increase, with the figure currently standing above 3 mb/d.

El-Badri said that crude oil movements indicated that some OPEC countries were unable to find buyers for their additional supply.