SEOUL, Nov 7: OPEC has not formally set a firm oil price floor that it intends to defend, the group's president said on Tuesday, despite comments from Venezuela that the producer group wanted to keep prices above a barrel.
''OPEC does not have a floor.... but we know when prices have fallen,'' Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's senior oil official, told a forum in South Korea.
He declined to comment on how prices may move next year.
OPEC has not officially set a new price band or target since abandoning its - range three years ago, although price hawks Iran and Venezuela last week both indicated that the group would no longer tolerate prices below a barrel.
The group last month agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) -- its first formal output curbs since 2004 -- to halt a slump in prices from a mid-July U.S. record of .40 to less than two weeks ago.
Some analysts took that as an indication that it was seeking to defend prices at - a barrel.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said last week that OPEC's strategy was to maintain at least a barrel, and that it may need to cut another 300,000 barrels per day in December.
Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said that a price below was unacceptable due to the rising cost of production.
Daukoru also told Reuters at the weekend that he did not believe a barrel crude would hurt the world economy.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who has avoided signalling any long-term price goal, said separately on Monday: ''Neither high prices nor substantial energy import dependence has been a major impediment for...(consumer countries') economies.'' Producers have been wary of setting a new target as oil's steady rally -- which has only recently stalled -- showed the world could tolerate a much higher price than previously thought.
OPEC also wants higher prices to fund the massive investments needed to meet galloping demand growth in China and the United States.
REUTERS
''OPEC does not have a floor.... but we know when prices have fallen,'' Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's senior oil official, told a forum in South Korea.
He declined to comment on how prices may move next year.
OPEC has not officially set a new price band or target since abandoning its - range three years ago, although price hawks Iran and Venezuela last week both indicated that the group would no longer tolerate prices below a barrel.
The group last month agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) -- its first formal output curbs since 2004 -- to halt a slump in prices from a mid-July U.S. record of .40 to less than two weeks ago.
Some analysts took that as an indication that it was seeking to defend prices at - a barrel.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said last week that OPEC's strategy was to maintain at least a barrel, and that it may need to cut another 300,000 barrels per day in December.
Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said that a price below was unacceptable due to the rising cost of production.
Daukoru also told Reuters at the weekend that he did not believe a barrel crude would hurt the world economy.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who has avoided signalling any long-term price goal, said separately on Monday: ''Neither high prices nor substantial energy import dependence has been a major impediment for...(consumer countries') economies.'' Producers have been wary of setting a new target as oil's steady rally -- which has only recently stalled -- showed the world could tolerate a much higher price than previously thought.
OPEC also wants higher prices to fund the massive investments needed to meet galloping demand growth in China and the United States.
REUTERS
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