OPEC ministers gather, hurricane drives oil price
OPEC ministers on Monday gathered in Vienna ahead of a meeting to review output policy, but were widely expected to leave formal targets unchanged, especially as a powerful hurricane could lift oil prices.
A hard core of ministers has said the market is over-supplied following months of over-production led by top exporter Saudi Arabia.
They have argued output must be reduced sooner or later to bolster prices, which have plunged by nearly 30 percent from a record above $147 a barrel hit in July.
The oil market touched a five-month low just above $105 on Friday, under pressure from economic weakness and lower fuel consumption.
They recovered to above $107 a barrel on Monday as traders weighed the risk Hurricane Ike could crash into energy installations in the U.S americashadvance. Gulf of Mexico after sweeping through Cuba.
“Of course, of course. I believe that the market is over-supplied,” Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari told reporters on arrival in Vienna early on Monday.
Iran, together with Venezuela, which also has a big-spending, populist government, has been at the forefront of those seeking a high price.
Nozari has said $100 a barrel was the minimum acceptable, while the country’s OPEC governor was quoted on Sunday as saying the price could not fall below $80 as that was the cost of bringing on some new fields.