DOHA: Qatar’s former oil minister says crude prices in the global markets may oscillate between $60 and $70 a barrel this year and the next.
H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah , ex-energy and industry minister and the present chairman of Administrative Control and Transparency Authority, said the prices of oil, like any other commodity, depend on demand and supply.
According to him, a surplus of about two million barrels a day of oil in the international markets was presently putting pressure on prices. “There is nothing new or surprising about fluctuating oil prices. They have been doing so for the pasts several decades.
Al Attiyah told media persons on the sidelines of an event at Qatar University that “when oil rates reached $110 per barrel, it led to an inflationary pressure and impacted almost every sector of the economy and pushed the world economy into recession. This caused a decline in oil demand.”
At the event, Qatar University honoured Al Attiyah as ‘Person of the Year for 2014’.
He said the US began exporting oil after a gap of 30 years and currently adds some half a million barrels of crude a day to the global market. As a result of rising supplies and lower demand it was natural for oil prices to drop, he suggested.
Al Attiyah said Qatar’s developmental projects will not be affected by the dwindling oil prices as the country is adopting flexible policies to cope with changing situations.
He stressed that oil exporting countries must keep in mind the fluctuating oil prices and re-adjust their budgets accordingly with the aim to check inflation without hampering the pace of economic growth.
Al Attiyah noted that increasing prices of goods and services were offsetting a significant portion of revenues and also pushing the cost of projects up. “Therefore, we must create a balance keeping in view some the key macro-economic fundamentals.”
“High oil prices (in the past) created an inflationary situation in oil exporting countries which raised the cost of living very high,” Al Attiyah was quoted as saying by local Arabic dailies.
