OPEC has not set an oil price floor: President

SEOUL, Nov 7: OPEC has not formally set a firm oil price floor that it intends to defend, the group's president said on Tuesday, despite comments from Venezuela that the producer group wanted to keep prices above a barrel.

''OPEC does not have a floor.... but we know when prices have fallen,'' Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's senior oil official, told a forum in South Korea.

He declined to comment on how prices may move next year.

OPEC has not officially set a new price band or target since abandoning its - range three years ago, although price hawks Iran and Venezuela last week both indicated that the group would no longer tolerate prices below a barrel.

The group last month agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) -- its first formal output curbs since 2004 -- to halt a slump in prices from a mid-July U.S. record of .40 to less than two weeks ago.

Some analysts took that as an indication that it was seeking to defend prices at - a barrel.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said last week that OPEC's strategy was to maintain at least a barrel, and that it may need to cut another 300,000 barrels per day in December.

Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said that a price below was unacceptable due to the rising cost of production.

Daukoru also told Reuters at the weekend that he did not believe a barrel crude would hurt the world economy.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who has avoided signalling any long-term price goal, said separately on Monday: ''Neither high prices nor substantial energy import dependence has been a major impediment for...(consumer countries') economies.'' Producers have been wary of setting a new target as oil's steady rally -- which has only recently stalled -- showed the world could tolerate a much higher price than previously thought.

OPEC also wants higher prices to fund the massive investments needed to meet galloping demand growth in China and the United States.

REUTERS