Oil demand is gradually improving and oil prices should climb to near $70 by year's end, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Friday, a day after OPEC agreed to maintain production.
The comment comes after the powerful Saudi oil minister said this week that he believed the recuperating world economy was ready to cope with prices as high as $75 to $80 a barrel, around the level that the world's top producer has said is fair.
"We expect (prices) to be near $70 at the end of the year," Ramirez, one of the more hawkish voices in the cartel, told Reuters after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo. "The market looks like it's recovering."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Thursday held output steady and instead bet on economic growth and recovering demand to drive the oil market, a move economists said risked overtaxing consumers coping with recession.[ID:nLS12120]
"OPEC will be ready to have balance in the market," he said.
OPEC-member Venezuela has been aggressively seeking investments from Asia, eyeing China and Japan for new sources of financing to fill a budget gap left by a tumble in oil prices from a record high last summer.
Last month, Japan and Venezuela agreed on a broad cooperation to develop oil and gas projects in the Latin American nation.
Source :Reuters.
No comments:
Post a Comment