Oil prices advanced today, in line with rising global stock markets, as OPEC signalled that $75-80 a barrel was a satisfactory level for crude.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, added $1.10 to $77.45 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for January delivery gained $1.16 to $77.47 a barrel in London trading.
'$75-80 a barrel is a good price for the recovery of the world economy,' OPEC president Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said today.
De Vasconcelos, who is also Angola's oil minister, was speaking on the sidelines of a conference on Gulf energy security in Abu Dhabi.
He also said the rate of compliance by OPEC members with their production quotas 'is around 65%'. This rate is satisfactory, he added.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose members pump about 40% of the world's oil, will review production quotas at a key meeting in Luanda in Angola, on December 22.
