Iraqi oil minister sees rising demand; crude at $75 by year end

[June 05, 2015]  By Reem Shamseddine

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said he expects prices and demand to rise, while all options on output would be discussed as ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gathered for their policy meeting on Friday.

‎"Demand is higher than expected, this explains why prices rose in the previous period," Abdel Mahdi told reporters in Vienna, adding that he saw prices heading towards $75 per barrel <LCOc1> by the end of this year.

OPEC is set on Friday to stick by its policy of unconstrained oil output for another six months, setting aside warnings of a second lurch lower in prices as some members such as Iran look to ramp up exports.

But Abdel Mahdi said all options would be on the table.

"There had been ideas, people asked the question whether we have to raise, whether we have to reduce, whether we have to keep it, so all this will be discussed."

Speaking about Iraq's oil output, Abdel Mahdi said: "We are less than our ordinary production. Last year exports should have been 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd), this year it should have been 3.3 million bpd, we are still largely under this."

"I think we are approaching to 3.2 million bpd within 2-3 months," he said, adding Iraq was capable of producing at least 6 million barrels per day by 2020.

(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Writing by Veronica Brown; Editing by Mark Potter)

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