FT:

”The market doesn’t need more oil,” Abdullah al-Attiyah, Qatar’s energy minister, told Reuters. He noted the International Energy Agency had decreased its demand forecasts in its monthly report last week because of sluggish demand in North America and in developing countries that could no longer shoulder the burden of their fuel costs.

In fact, the IEA said: ”The most recent data and estimates suggest the oil market should have been in surplus the past two months and should remain in that position for the rest of this year – as long as Opec maintains its production at current levels.”

Chakib Khelil, Algeria’s energy minister and Opec’s president, reiterated what most Opec ministers, including Saudi Arabia, had been saying for the past several weeks: “Indications shows that there is no shortage (of supply)…The market is well supplied and stocks are adequate.”

Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq’s oil minister, sent the same message, telling reporters at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, that the market was well supplied and that prices were being driven higher by speculators.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose to $127 a barrel.

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