Opec President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the group's official target range for oil prices could change from its long-standing $22 to $28 a barrel, but added any shift would take time to work through, media reported yesterday.

In an interview with Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore yesterday, Mr Yusgiantoro said he expected a team working on possible changes to the price targets would wrap up its work by the time oil producing countries meet in September.

"The new range will not be adopted quickly," he was quoted as saying. "Naturally the new range will take into consideration various factors like changes in foreign exchange rates and inflation."

Opec's reference crude oil price has been above the official band all year but dipped on Wednesday, after the group agreed to raise its official production ceiling by two million barrels per day from July 1 and a further 500,000 bdp from August 1.

Mr Yusgiantoro, who said the right oil price was $25 "from a fundamental point of view", said Opec countries were currently producing at about 88 per cent of their capacity.