Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Global economic recovery will not be in jeopardy if the price of oil rallies to $90 a barrel, and crude prices are unlikely to rise as high as $100 next year, according to OPEC.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, responsible for 40 percent of worldwide crude supplies, is comfortable with oil prices at between $70 and $85 a barrel, the group’s secretary-general said today. Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said in Singapore on Nov. 1 that a range of between $70 and $90 a barrel is satisfactory for consumers. The kingdom had previously indicated a preferred target of $75 a barrel.
“I don’t think we’ll see $100 oil in 2011,” Secretary- General Abdullah El-Badri said at a press conference in Vienna held to launch OPEC’s annual long-term outlook.
Crude for December delivery climbed to a six-month high of $86.68 a barrel today on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the Federal Reserve said yesterday that it would expand record measures to spur growth in the U.S., the world’s largest crude consumer.
Financial speculators are not as “aggressive” in driving oil prices this year as they were in 2008 and 2009, El-Badri said. Speculators are typically considered to be buyers and sellers of futures contracts without a need for physical barrels of oil, such as hedge funds.
OPEC forecast in its World Oil Outlook that global oil demand will increase 5.1 percent to 89.9 million barrels a day in 2014 from this year, and grow to 105.5 million a day in 2030.
