Vienna, July 03: The head of the West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, said on Wednesday that current high oil prices were partly to blame for sluggish world economic growth. Claude Mandil said the recovery of Iraq's oil industry after the US invasion had been much slower than anyone expected and the country was still pumping about a third of its pre-war levels.
"The prices are too high for everybody, too high for the world economy, and that is one of the reasons the economy is sluggish and not recovering very well," Mandil told reporters after a news conference in Vienna.
Benchmark Brent crude oil has averaged $26.45 per barrel since the beginning of 2000, when Opec set a $25 target for its own oil. This is a 44 per cent increase on the previous decade, when Brent averaged $18.37.
Mandil said high oil prices also paradoxically damaged the long-term interests of Opec, because the 11-member group would lose market share to rival exporters in its attempt to keep prices up. Bureau Report