Tehran, Iran, May 24
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran says it never backs high prices for oil.
Seyed Mohsen Qamsari, National Iranian Oil Company's director for international affairs, said on May 24 that the exporting countries will bear losses due to expensive oil in the long term, Iran's Mehr News reported.
Qamsari, however, said the oil prices will not fall below $100 by the end of 2014.
"High prices will lead in higher supply," he said.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh previously said that Washington will never let oil prices fall, since the country has invested huge amounts of money in new oil extraction technologies.
Oil prices were steady Friday, with traders reluctant to make big moves ahead of a long U.S. holiday weekend and national elections in politically fraught Ukraine, The WSJ reported on May 23.
Light, sweet crude for delivery in July were up 35 cents, or 0.3%, to $104.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for July, the global benchmark, was up 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $110.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Gasoline futures continued to extend gains past Thursday's three-week high, ahead of the official start of the summer driving season beginning this Memorial Day weekend. Reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, for June delivery was up 1.72 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.0230 a gallon on the Nymex.
The small bounce in U.S. oil futures reclaimed lost ground from Thursday, when traders who had bet on a rally based on weekly U.S. stockpile data sold those positions and locked in profits. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that oil stockpiles fell 7.2 million barrels in the previous week, and futures hit a one-month high.