Some Opec members moot US$80 as new 'fair' oil price

Vienna

NEARLY a year after oil markets entered a deep downward spiral, unmoored from the US$100-a-barrel mark that had anchored them for years, some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are publicly talking for the first time about a new "fair" price for their crude.

Oil ministers from Iraq, Venezuela and Angola said in Vienna this week that a price of US$75 or US$80 a barrel - barely US$10 above the going rate - could be just fine. Iraq's Adel Abdel Mahdi said it would be "equitable".

Privately, one Gulf Opec delegate also told Reuters he reckons crude may be trading around this level next year, once markets rebalance.

It remains to be seen whether this new range becomes a common refrain for the group, which has effectively given up efforts to maintain prices in order…