"We will not just react to $ 100 oil," the Minister said. "OPEC will move when it sees physical demand for its oil." US crude future hit a record of $ 101.32 on Wednesday on a surge of investor cash into commodities.
Concern that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold or even cut output when it meets on March 5 as well as uncertainty about Venezuelan and Nigerian supplies, helped send prices to triple digits.
The surge this week was due to speculation and international political tension, not due to any problem with the fundamentals of supply and demand, Abdullah bin Hamad said.
"The timing of this rise is very strange," Minister said. "The price is going the wrong way for the season. That shows it is related to speculation and politics. Companies are lowering their requests for oil in March as usual.. so it doesn’t seem there is demand for more oil." Minister said it was too early to say whether OPEC should change its output policy in March.
"I cannot say if we will reduce supply or not, or what we will do," he said. "Who knows what the market will have done by then?"
