Business | Oil & Gas
High oil prices fake and imposed, says Iran
Ahmadinejad says supply is plentiful, alleging dollar is deliberately being pushed lower
- Reuters
- Published: 20:29 June 17, 2008
Isfahan, Iran: The oil market is plentifully supplied and the rally to record high prices is "fake and imposed", Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, blaming a weak US dollar which he suggested was being pushed lower on purpose.
"At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed," he said.
"It is very clear that visible and invisible hands are controlling prices in a fake way with political and economic aims," he said when opening a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development in this central city.
With high fuel prices sparking protests worldwide, Ahmadinejad hit out at energy taxes in consumer nations. He said there was an "unfair" difference in income between energy exporting and importing countries.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has repeatedly said the market is well-supplied with crude and blames rising prices on speculation, a weak dollar and geopolitical factors.
Iran has often said it sees no need for the Opec to boost output, as the US and big oil consumers want.
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