Business | Oil & Gas
Al Naimi not worried by US oil stock build
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi said yesterday he was not concerned about a buildup in US crude stocks and that current oil price levels were not harming world economic growth.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 March 20, 2006
Rabegh, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi said yesterday he was not concerned about a buildup in US crude stocks and that current oil price levels were not harming world economic growth.
Oil prices dipped below $63 on Friday, retracing some of the week's sharp gains made on fears of tight summer gasoline supplies.
Prices fell midweek after a US government report revealed a fifth weekly rise in crude stocks, now at seven-year highs as a warm winter allowed the world's biggest energy consumer to rebuild supplies after 2005's devastating hurricane season.
"I believe, in these somewhat tense and uncertain times, it is only logical for consuming countries to build stocks," Al Naimi told a news conference, referring to concerns about the security of supplies in some Opec producers such as Nigeria and Iran.
"In normal situations very high stocks would have a depressing effect on prices, but these are not normal times."
"Today we see prices at a level where everyone benefits and the consumer is not harmed," he said. "I am not aware that the global economy is being hurt."
Asked whether Opec would meet before a planned June 1 gathering, Naimi said: "I am not aware there is one."
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