OPEC Secretary General Abdulla Salem el-Badri said late Wednesday that there was no need for its members to inject more crude into the market and that critics of the group shouldn't pressure it to do so.
Ahead of a workshop here between the International Energy Agency, representing oil-consuming nations, and the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, el-Badri told Dow Jones Newswires that "there is no reason, no reason whatsoever," for the group to leak more crude volumes into the market.
"The market is fine" he added and OPEC's current output policy won't be amended ahead of its next meeting Sept. 11.
U.S. oil inventories data that showed builds in crude and products Wednesday contributed to a fall in oil prices, with U.S. light, sweet crude at 1817 GMT down 65 cents at $62.52 a barrel.
Last Friday, the IEA warned of a summer of discontent in global oil and products markets unless OPEC introduces a substantial output hike soon, a need underscored by lower-than-expected non-OPEC flows and low gasoline inventories.
In its widely watched monthly oil market report, IEA, the energy security watchdog for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, raised a red flag over the ability of refiners and the willingness of OPEC to meet a 1.6 million barrels a day jump in oil product demand in June.
The IEA is unsettled by its reconfirmation of the "dramatic" and sharpest draw of first-quarter OECD inventories in 11 years, with almost 1 million barrels sucked down in the period and with stocks at the end of March falling 17 million barrels on the month to 2.6 billion barrels.
Tied with U.S. gasoline inventory cover at a 16-year low, a reversal of this situation "requires an increase in OPEC output before the summer" if a steep decline in crude stocks isn't to take place, the agency said.
Source : biz.yahoo.com
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