- Gold Hits $1,121, Barrick Chief Says Selloff Possible
- Foreclosures Fall Again But Improvement Likely Fleeting
- Highest State Foreclosure Rates
- Jobless, Wal-Mart to Drive Sentiment on Thursday
- Yuan Critics Want Obama to Keep Campaign Promise
- Dollar Trouble, Oil's Bubble Could Derail Recovery
- Hewlett-Packard to Acquire 3Com for $2.7 Billion in Cash
- AIG CEO: I Remain 'Totally Committed' to Firm
- CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs Says He is Leaving Network
- What to Expect From Disney Earnings?
- HP's Shot Across Cisco's Bow
- USC Football Blog Leads All-Access Space
- Clowning Around At Work
- Ahead of Earnings Disney Restructures Studio
- Nov. 11: Unusual Volume Leaders
- 3 'Clear Sailing' Mid-Caps For Investors: Strategist
- Intimate Apparel Sales Heating Up: Maidenform CEO
- A Day On The USS Harry S. Truman
MOST SHARED
- Hewlett-Packard to Acquire 3Com for $2.7 Billion in Cash
- How the Droid and Google Threaten the GPS Makers
- Dollar Trouble, Oil's Bubble Could Derail Recovery
- USC Football Blog Leads All-Access Space
- Credit Is Thawing, But Businesses Still Hesitant to Borrow
- Shopping for Answers
- CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs Says He is Leaving Network
- HPQ to Acquire 3Com
- Addicted to Easy Money?
Text Size 
There is "no shortage" in the oil market and OPEC member countries would prefer a lower price than the current highs, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri told CNBC on Tuesday.
"I think the problem is with the U.S. dollar, I think the problem is with the speculators, but there is no shortage in the markets," El-Badri said on "Squawk Box."
 |
The dispute between those who say the oil price is driven by speculators and those who maintain that supply is tight has heightened over the past weeks, when crude broke record after record on the international markets.
On Tuesday, New York light crude futures were trading about $2 higher on the dollar's weakness and concerns over the main Gulf oil shipping route amid lingering tensions surrounding Iran. But the price was still off the record high of $143.67 hit on Monday.
World oil inventories were within their five-year average and OPEC is "producing more than we should," El-Badri said. "If you need oil, we can sell it to you, but we don't see any queue."
He admitted there were bottlenecks in the refining process as everybody prefers light crude, which is easier to refine, rather than the heavy crude which OPEC also churns out.
But $162 billion was invested in OPEC countries to boost capacity and in fact the cartel would like to see the prices at lower levels than the current ones, he added.
"We do not prefer a high price, we'd like to see a comfortable price," El-Badri said.
More than 85 percent of the OPEC revenue from selling crude are going back to the U.S. and European Union anyway, he added, because member countries were buying materials and goods from there.
"We are not really keeping that money in our member markets, we are channeling it back into the market," El-Badri said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was quoted as saying that oil prices were unlikely to come down even if OPEC would pump more.
"People who think that oil prices will go down once production is raised are wrong because there are indications the prices will remain high," the Arab Times quoted the ruler of the world's largest oil exporter as saying.
On Monday, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia stands ready to pump as much oil as its customers require, but supply for now was adequate.
Print
Email
- Bernard and Ruth Madoff's personal possessions will be auctioned this weekend. Click ahead to see.
- US real estate prices have fallen dramatically, but some places are still doing well. See the best-performing zip codes this year.
- An Italian cashmere maker aims to make profits while creating ideal conditions for his workers.
- Just in time for the holidays, the Triumph company of Japan offers the latest innovation in women’s undergarments.
- The real result of health care reform will be bloated government and higher deficits, says Larry Kudlow.
- Vote and suggest your own, and remember--there's a fine line between a hero and a zero.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes