OPEC chief insists speculation behind oil price rises
Posted: 01 June 2008 0429 hrs

	Photos  of

ALGIERS : OPEC president Chakib Khelil again blamed speculators for the steep rise in oil prices Saturday, insisting that supply was not a problem.

"There is no problem of supply, the problem is much more linked to speculation," he told a press conference with visiting French ecology and energy minister Jean-Louis Borloo.

He also said the price of oil was closely linked to the exchange rate of the US dollar, which has fallen steeply against other major currencies.

"The consensus is that the crisis is not over and there is going to be a continuing impact on the prices of oil because of speculation," he added.

Khelil, who is also the Algerian energy minister, had made similar remarks on Monday in an interview with Spanish national radio.

"If OPEC decides to raise production ... these hikes will not really lower the price," he said then.

He said Saturday that the cartel of producer nations would not review the situation again until it meets in Vienna on September 9.

Oil prices are still extremely volatile, closing in New York at 127.35 dollars a barrel Friday for light sweet crude for July delivery, up 73 cents on the day but well short of earlier in the week, when crude surged beyond 135 dollars on concerns about tightening energy supplies.

OPEC, which pumps 40 percent of the world's oil, is reluctant to bend to demands that it produce more to dampen the red-hot market.

Analysts said recent speculative oil trading had been driven by tight global supplies, the weak dollar, unrest in key crude producers like Nigeria, and OPEC's unwillingness to boost output. - AFP/de