High oil prices could last through summer: OPEC President

The current president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) warned that there was little the world's largest oil exporters could do to rein in oil prices, the Financial Times (FT) reported on its website on Monday.

Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's minister of energy and mineral resources, said that high crude oil prices could last through summer, the report said. But he blamed "very tight" gasoline stocks in the U.S. due to new regulations, the actions of speculators, and geopolitical issues including the unrest in Iraq, the report, which was quoted by Dow Jones, said.

"I don't like these kinds of prices. These kinds of prices will really hurt everybody," the FT quoted him as saying. "But this price level is not because OPEC is playing. There is not much OPEC can do," he said, according to the report.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC's most influential member, on Monday called for what Purnomo termed "an essential" 1.5 million barrel-a-day increase in the cartel's output ceiling, the FT reported.

The OPEC president indicated that some of the group's members were in favor of raising OPEC's preferred price band, the report said.

He said that rather than trying to bring prices all the way down to the $22-$28 target, the cartel is likely to "soon" move to raise that price band, the report said. (*)