Oil prices likely at $130 in 2010: Algerian minister

Oil prices could stabilise in the second half of 2010 at around US$90 ($130) a barrel, Algeria's Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said Saturday.

• “The oil market will stabilise when the price of a barrel is at US$90. This level should be reached between the middle and the end of 2010,” Khelil said in Algiers, according to the APS news agency.
• Khelil said the current oil price, which has been rising and is above US$70 currently, represents a “normal situation”, due to a fall in reserves and the International Energy Agency raising their forecast for global demand.
• The minister said other factors behind the recent price rise were increased fuel consumption in America and the first signs of economic recovery in the US and China.
• Members of The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were also sticking to their production quotas, Khelil said.
• “I don’t think prices will continue to rise. They might stabilise or perhaps fall to US$65 or US$70 a barrel,” he added.
• Oil prices retreated on Friday after a week of rises, due to the effects of profit-taking encouraged by a US dollar rebound.
• Light sweet crude hit US$72.04 in New York, a fall of 64 cents compared to its closing price on Thursday.