Cape Town (Platts)--14Apr2008

OPEC member countries with limited spare production capacity have no
influence over the factors that have triggered a spike in crude prices,
Libya's top oil official said Monday.

"I don't think we need to do anything right now. In any case, even if
OPEC wants to do something, it can't because these prices are being driven by
speculators and not fundamentals," NOC's chairman Shokri Ghanmen told Platts
by telephone from Tripoli.

Despite a plea from consuming countries for OPEC to raise oil production,
oil ministers insist the market remains well supplied.

Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi last Thursday reiterated his belief
that there is more supply than demand for crude oil in the world market and
that high oil prices are not due to a shortage of supply.

US light crude futures were hovering around $110/barrel Monday after
trading at a new record of $112.21/barrel in New York last week on falling
energy stockpiles in the US.

The International Energy Agency's executive director, Nobuo Tanaka, on
Thursday urged OPEC to maintain current oil output levels so that consumer
inventories can be replenished and said that prices of around $111/barrel
posed a threat to global economic growth.

The agency on Friday revised its estimate for global demand for oil this
year down to 87.2 million b/d, a reduction of 310,000 b/d from its estimate
last month.

OPEC ministers met in February and March but decided on both occasions
to maintain current output targets, set at 29.673 million b/d for the 12
members -- excluding Iraq -- bound by output pacts, saying there was no
shortage of crude and that prices were being driven by factors other than
fundamentals.

OPEC's next meeting is scheduled for September 9 in Vienna.

--Jacinta Moran, jacinta_moran@platts.com