US urges oil output boost to ease prices

RIYADH: US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman on Tuesday called on oil producers to boost output in a bid to ease crude prices, as oil prices struck $108 over unrest in the Middle East.

"We think that the proper response (to the high prices) is that producers respond to those price signals and see the need for more production and bring that product to the market," Poneman told reporters in Riyadh.

"When producers bring product to the market, price starts to subside," the US official said on the sidelines of a producer-consumer conference in the Saudi capital.

"All oil producers need to respond... expect all of them to respond."

Brent prices broke past $107 in Asian trade Tuesday as violence in Libya and Bahrain threatened to destabilise the key oil-producing Middle East and North African region.

Brent crude rose over $108 per barrel on Tuesday afternoon, surpassing two-year highs reached on Monday, while the OPEC basket soared to above $100 a barrel.