Purnomo sees oil prices falling further

Purnomo sees oil prices falling further

Global oil supplies are back at normal levels and oil prices should fall further after recent record highs, OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday.

"(Oil) supply is normal again, with adequate stocks ... we expect prices to keep falling," Purnomo told reporters.

Asked if the downtrend will continue into the first quarter of next year, he said demand for oil will rise but OPEC's production should be sufficient to meet the demand.

Oil prices slid for a third day running Friday as speculators banked profits ahead of next week's U.S. presidential election amid easing supply fears and China's move to hike interest rates, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, edged down two cents to US$50.90 a barrel in electronic trading.

In London the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in December lost 29 cents to $48.08 a barrel in early deals.

New York's main contract tumbled $1.54, or 2.9 percent, to finish at $50.92 a barrel on Thursday, a loss of 7.7 percent since Tuesday's close.

Purnomo said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had yet to decide whether to raise its output quota again when the members meet in Cairo in December.

At its previous meeting in Vienna last month, OPEC raised the quota by one million barrels per day to 27 million.

Earlier this week, Purnomo said OPEC's production was already exceeding the quota by two million barrels per day. -- AFP