Tehran (Platts)--8Apr2008

The oil market was well supplied and current prices are fair, OPEC
Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri said, reported state-owned Iranian
newspaper Iran on Tuesday.
"The most important issue for OPEC is [to make sure] that there is no
shortage in market and this has been materialized," the daily quoted Badri as
saying. "The current oil supply is more than demand," Badri added.
Badri, who left Iran on Monday following a three-day visit to the
country, also played down criticism from consumer nations who are asking OPEC
to increase output to arrest rising oil prices.
"It is not important for us that consumers complain about oil price,
because when price is low, consumers do not care about our complaints and we
consider the current price appropriate and fair," Badri said.
Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded at an
all-time high of $111.80/b on March 17. Prices fell briefly below $100/b last
week, but have since scrambled back up as senior OPEC officials have ruled out
any early action to boost supply. Front-month US light sweet crude oil futures
were trading at $108.72/b at 07:14 GMT Tuesday, 37 cents down from Monday's
close.