Dubai: Global oil inventories are "really high" and the current crude oil prices do not reflect the market fundamentals, UAE Energy Minister Mohammad Bin Dha'en Al Hameli said on arrival in Cairo, Egypt, to chair the 85th Ministerial Conference of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (Oapec) scheduled for Saturday.
"The prices should reflect the fundamentals. Currently they are not reflective... Stocks are really high, above the high five-year average," Al Hameli told reporters, according to WAM.
The members' commitment to the output quotas set by the Organisation Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) "is good", he added.
"The UAE's production is the same as the production quota set by Opec," the minister said.
Among items on the agenda of the Oapec conference are intra-Arab cooperation on oil and gas issues, the consequences of the global financial crisis on Arab economies and the oil industry and global developments in the oil industry.
Agenda
The Cairo meeting will also discuss the outcome of the ninth Arab Energy Conference, held in Doha, Qatar, between May 9 and 12, as well as the bloc's cooperation with regional and global groups on environment and climate change.
The oil ministers gathered in Cairo saw no need to supply the world with more crude as oil prices traded near a two-year high and some consumers said they fear a rally above $100 (Dh367) per barrel would spur inflation.
Saudi Arabia's Ali Al Naimi said he was still happy with an oil price of $70-$80 per barrel and there was no need for an extra Opec meeting before the next one scheduled for June.
Opec's stance is that oil demand remains fragile and speculators are to blame for the rally in prices.
Iraq's new oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said the group may meet before June if market conditions changed, but then added that if a decision was taken to meet, it would not be "about price. It's about market conditions".
"Opec has limited its number of meetings to limit market disturbance," Luaibi said.
— With inputs from Reuters
