BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- Oil stock levels were too high and needed to be reduced by around 10 days of forward consumption, according Saturday to the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
At present, world stocks, in floating storage and onshore, amounted to the equivalent of 62-63 days of consumption, said Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, who is also oil minister of Angola.
"We need to stabilize the market," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
"We've a lot of storage, floating storage, land storage" and the level "normally needed for market stability is 52-53 days" of consumption.
Short-term crude floating storage levels in May fell for the first time since late 2008, the International Energy said last month.
In its June report, the Paris-based watchdog for the world's major energy-consuming nations said that levels fell by 30 million barrels, compared with April, to between 80 million and 85 million barrels by the end of May.
Some OPEC ministers have said they are concerned that high levels of crude held in floating storage could hit prices as traders could start selling opportunistically.
-By Terence Poon, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588-5848; terence.poon@dowjones.com
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Publié le 04 Juillet 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones