Opec worried over oil price

Opec voiced concern yesterday over oil's relentless rise towards $88 a barrel, but some members said the exporter group could do nothing more to control the rally.

Worried that oil near $80 was too costly, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed last month to raise production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from November 1.

Prices have marched steadily higher ever since, but Opec insisted it was pumping enough crude to satisfy consumers.

"While the Organisation does not favour oil prices at this level, it strongly believes that fundamentals are not supporting current high prices and that the market is very well supplied," Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said in a statement.

Stocks of fuel in major consuming countries were comfortable, he said.

"Opec cannot do much now," Libya's top oil official Shokri Ghanem told Reuters. "Opec did all that it can."

The 10 Opec members, excluding Iraq and Angola, bound by the November supply agreement were in the process of implementing their portion of the increase, said the Opec statement.