WASHINGTON - OPEC oil-producing nations said on Saturday oil prices have risen despite a well-supplied market, adding it was urgent to identify new indicators of price trends to supplant the now-unreliable gauge of oil stocks. “This price rise occurred despite the fact that the market continues to be well-supplied,” Adnan Shihab-Eldin, acting secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, told a meeting of the International Monetary Fund’s policy committee.| I believe this; it's the nervous nellies in the spot and futures markets that are driving the price up. |
Oil prices leapt to a new peak over $75 a barrel on Friday amid persistent worries a showdown over IranÂ’s nuclear program could wind up disrupting supplies.
Finance officials from the Group of Seven rich nations on Friday pointed at oil prices as a potential stumbling block for the global economy and called for increased production and investment. Shihab-Eldin said uncertainties over the future demand for oil were complicating investment decisions and “consequently increasing the risks associated with both under- and over- investment.” He said the need for “appropriate investment” extended to the entire supply-chain.
Shihab-Eldin drew a distinction between the ample supplies on the crude side and tight supplies of refined products.
| For example, the really tight gasoline situation in Iran. |