Kuwait City: A fair price for both oil producers and consumers for a barrel of oil would be around $60 to $65 a barrel, a Kuwaiti state oil newsletter quoted the head of Opec's research division as saying.
"A price of $60 to $65 is appropriate for consumers and producers, because it boosts means of investment in the oil industry in light of growing demand for oil in the coming years," state firm Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's (KOC) monthly newsletter quoted Hasan Qabazard as saying.
"Opec seeks to supply markets sufficiently at proper prices," Qabazard told the magazine's July edition. Qabazard is the top research official at the Vienna headquarters of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The report did not specify to which oil price he referred.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, shed 35 cents to close at $75.57 per barrel.
Political problems
In London, Brent North Sea crude for September delivery closed virtually flat, down three cents at $77.64 per barrel. On Wednesday Brent shot up more than a dollar after the US government reported gasoline inventories fell sharply, instead of climbing as the market had expected.
Global oil prices are now flirting with their all-time highs of the summer of 2006.
Brent oil price is just a dollars short of its record high of $78.64, struck on August 7, 2006, after a pipeline spill forced British firm BP to close production from Prudhoe Bay, the biggest oil field in the United States.
The price of Opec's reference crude oil basket stood at $73.23 on Thursday.
Qabazard blamed political problems such as a row between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme and abductions in Nigeria's oil industry for rising oil prices.
Qabazard also said a shortage of gasoline in the United States, as a result of refinery capacity constraints, contributed to high oil prices.
