Oil Market Still Not Balanced Enough To Form Fair Price - Russian Energy Minister

Oil Market Still Not Balanced Enough to Form Fair Price - Russian Energy Minister

Oil market has already been balanced in terms of demand and supply, but this balance is not enough to establish a fair price for the commodity, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2018) Oil market has already been balanced in terms of demand and supply, but this balance is not enough to establish a fair price for the commodity, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday.

"In my opinion, prices are now formed taking into account great uncertainties and risks, and in this regard, the market is not well balanced yet. [It is balanced] in terms of supply and demand, but not in terms of forming the price based on fundamental indicators," Novak said during the Russian Energy Week (REW) forum in Moscow.

Novak did not rule out that the oil prices may reach $100 per barrel.

"This [$100 per barrel] would not be very good either for the consumer economy or for producers, because it creates risks of a possible fall of prices. Such risks exist today and I do not exclude that oil prices can increase to $100 since there are a lot of uncertainties [on the oil market]," Novak added.

The Russian minister noted that there were no official talks between Moscow and Washington regarding prices for oil.

"We are not talking about oil prices ... We see messages that come from the US leadership in social networks, but such questions are not raised at the level of official negotiations," Novak said, asked whether this issue was raised during US Energy Secretary Rick Perry's visit to Moscow in September.

US President Donald Trump in late September accused the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a Twitter post of monopolizing oil trade and demanded that it stop pushing up crude prices.

The REW forum started in Moscow on Wednesday and will last until Saturday. Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is the official media partner of the event.