Iran's oil minister suggested he saw possible signs of improved crude demand from China and India and that this could help boost prices, in comments published on Thursday. Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari was speaking ahead of the May 28 meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna.
"In Opec's upcoming meeting there will a more clear picture of the global oil market in the months to come, while there are indications that there are changes in oil demand in China and India which are likely to take the oil price back to its previous condition," Resalat daily quoted him as saying.
The two Asian countries are major buyers of crude from Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. On Tuesday, Iran's Opec governor was quoted as saying that further reduction in oil supply was necessary, citing an increase in stockpiles in consumer nations. Oil prices fell below $58 a barrel on Thursday as equity markets slipped, weighing on optimism for economic recovery and energy demand.
A rally in stocks markets this year has helped lift crude prices almost 80 percent from a January low of $32.70. But the price is still sharply down from a peak of $147 a barrel in July 2008. Opec has already agreed to reduce production since September by about 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 5 percent of world supply. It is estimated to have delivered around 80 percent of those cuts so far.
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