Qatar, holder of the world’s third largest natural gas reserves, said crude oil prices are being pushed up by speculators rather than by any shortage of supply.
Speaking at the inauguration of a new refinery in Qatar, Oil Minister Abullah bin Hamad al Attiyah said: “There are many investors who don’t have trust in investing in stocks or bonds or real estate, so they go to commodities, there is no shortage of supplies.”
Oil jumped to $86.62 a barrel yesterday, the highest settlement price since Oct. 8, 2008, as growth in US jobs and service industries signaled the economy is recovering from the worst recession since the 1930s.
Crude prices have advanced 70 percent in the past 12 months in New York.
Global oil supplies are sufficient for 62 days, al Attiyah said.
A US Energy Department report tomorrow will probably show US inventories of crude rose by 1 million barrels last week, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Supplies climbed to 354.2 million barrels in the week ended March 26, the highest level since June.
Qatar is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s crude.
The producer group decided to leave output quotas unchanged for a fifth time at its meeting last month in Vienna.
OPEC, which isn’t scheduled to meet again before October, would increase production if there was a shortage of oil, al Attiyah said today. (Bloomberg)
