Kuwaiti oil chief hopes for $70-80 oil for 2009

OIL PRICE: Kuwait's oil minister wants the oil price to stabilise between $70-80 for the rest of this year. (Getty Images)

Kuwait's oil minister on Tuesday said he was optimistic about crude prices and hoped they would stabilise to between $70-80 by the year-end.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who is also minister for information, said the global economic crisis seemed to be emerging from recession.

Speaking to KUNA News Agency on the sidelines of his visit to Italy, he said that oil prices continued to fail to reflect the supply and demand mechanisms, at a time when data indicated a surplus in supply.

He said that the recent improvement in the price of the oil barrel, which exceeded $72 on Monday but fell back to below $71 on Tuesday, reflected the state of optimism that came with the improvement of financial markets alongside speculations.

He added that reports of profit-making by large companies also indicated that the economic recession curve had hit the bottom and that economic growth would once again resume.

Sheikh Ahmad said: "We do not want to see oil prices exceeding $100, as this will only drag down the economy into the quagmire of recession."

He hoped that prices would remain at $70-80 until the end of the year, saying that this was suitable for the economic status that the world was now going through.

The Kuwaiti minister arrived in Rome on Monday night, as part of a European tour that also saw him in Belgium and Holland.

The aim of the tour is to inspect Kuwaiti oil investments in these countries.

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READERS' COMMENTS

KUWAIT IS IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION
Posted by OIL EXPERT IN KUWAIT, Bneid Al Gar on Wednesday 5 August 2009 at 09:01 UAE time


Nero wasout fiddliung while Rome burned.

When is the Kuwait Oil Industry going to wake up and do something.

Walk the talk!

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