The Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum has set a target oil price of between US$60 and $75 a barrel.
“Today’s low oil prices are just as unsustainable as soaring prices,” Ali al-Naimi said.
The official’s comments, made while at an energy conference in Geneva, came after OPEC had announced on March 15 that it was not planning to make further production cuts despite pressure to do so from many leading industry.
“The days of oil as a primary fuel source for the people of the world are far from over,” he added.
“Given their massive scale, non-renewables will remain the world’s energy work-horse for many decades to come,” Naimi said. “There is no excuse to pin our hopes only on alternatives, which today are just supplemental energies. Our immediate focus, then, must be to make fossil fuels cleaner and more efficient.”
Despite his comments about the oil price Naimi told reporters that he had said he was “very happy” with OPEC’s decision not to make production cuts.
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