The price of crude oil could hit $70 per barrel by the end of 2015, according to Iraq’s oil minister Adel Abdel Mehdi.
“In January prices reached the bottom and they can’t go any lower than that,” Abdel Mehdi told news agency Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“Now they’re going up, slowly but steadily. They will go up and maybe reach $70 by the end of the year”.
However, Mehdi played down suggestions that the building conflict in Yemen could drastically affect regional export lines,
“Of course political issues such as the crisis in Yemen can give some push to the ascending line of prices, but it will have temporary effect.”
Mehdi also stated that Iraq was prepared for a potential return to market of Iranian oil.
“The gains will be much greater if we have succeeded negotiations between 5+1 with Iran,” Mehdi said.
Mehdi said that he did not anticipate any cuts to production levels would be announced at the forthcoming Opec meeting in June.
“I don’t think they have the intention of doing do so. I think they are defending their market share,” he said.
