Oil price hawk Iran said on Saturday that the cut in crude output from Libya was not significant when compared with high levels of stocks around the world. Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi reiterated his position that there was no need for Opec to hold an extraordinary meeting to address prices that have risen well above $100 per barrel due to conflict in Libya, unrest elsewhere in the Middle East and the post-tsunami crisis in Japan.
"The amount of global oil stocks, particularly in industrialised countries, is more than the average of the last five years, therefore the reduction of Libya's oil exports is not a remarkable amount compared to the level of stocks," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Mirkazemi as saying. "Based on supply and demand in the world and also the current price there is no need to hold an extraordinary (Opec) session," he added. Mirkazemi said he believed Opec would not make any change to its output quotas. Libya is estimated to have lost three quarters of its oil output as a result of fighting.