"The current oil prices are suitable and there is no
need to hold an [extraordinary] OPEC meeting....Even if prices reach $200,
we do not feel that a meeting is needed." Iran oil minister
Gholamhossein Nozari has said that current oil prices are suitable and that
even if they climb to $200/barrel there is no reason for OPEC to meet, the
oil ministry's Shana news agency reported Tuesday.
"More crude would prompt a more rapid crude stock
build and would improve refining margins, allowing more distillates to be
produced. In our opinion, this is a bull market driven primarily by demand
potential outstripping slow supply growth -- notably non-OPEC. With no slack
in the system, prices have had to rise to choke off demand growth and bring
the market into balance." World oil prices are
fundamentally caught up in a "bull market" as a result of supply failing to
keep pace with demand, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. Despite
OPEC's insistence that markets remain well-supplied with crude, the IEA said
consumer countries were right to argue that more oil from the cartel would
help to ease record prices.