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High oil prices may be damaging to consumers and producers alike unless they stabilise at realistic levels, Kuwait's oil minister said in remarks published on Saturday.
"The (price) rise is advantageous in the short term and can greatly increase revenues, but will remain a nightmare in the long term if it cannot reach a realistic level that is acceptable to both producers and consumers," Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah told Al Arabiya television in an interview late on Friday.
The rise "will encourage many companies to enter unsafe areas, or areas with high production cost," he said.
"They want new production areas in the world to be added to what is available now which would cause a glut so prices would cool 100 percent."
He said the damage from high prices would be greatest for the consumer in countries such as the United States and Europe, which impose high taxes.
Oil prices recently hit record highs just shy of $50 per barrel in the United States.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), of which Kuwait is a member, has said it is doing all it can to control prices.
The Kuwaiti minister, whose remarks were published by Kuwaiti dailies on Saturday, reiterated that current oil prices do not reflect actual market demand. There was no shortage of petroleum on the market, he added.
"There's a huge margin in prices due to psychological factors and fears concerning supplying international markets with oils in the future," Sheikh Ahmad said.
Tension in Iraq and the Middle East, strikes in Venezuela and Nigeria and other incidents "helped in pushing up all prices currently, especially given that all oil studies and investigations...assure that there is no shortage of crude oil in the world", the minister added.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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