MOSCOW, Oct 31: Opec expects world oil prices to stabilize in a range of $45-$55 per barrel next year and has ample spare capacity to meet demand, acting Secretary-General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said on Monday.

I see the prices next year in the range of $45-$55, Eldin told Reuters Television in an interview in Moscow. There is room for them to stabilise in this range, certainly above $40.

Global benchmark oil prices are well down from record highs touched two months ago, with US light crude futures trading around $60.50, compared with the high of $70.85. December Brent futures are trading near $59 a barrel.

Opec’s reference price for a basket of 11 crudes stood at $53.73 a barrel on Friday.

Eldin offered reassurance to markets concerned that demand for crude oil may outstrip supply during the northern hemisphere winter.

Opec spare capacity of 2 million barrels per day will be more than adequate to cover demand this winter, he told an oil conference earlier.

Eldin’s remarks echoed those made at the weekend by Opec president Sheikh Akhmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, who said the exporter group had spare capacity on hand but that demand was lacking.

Eldin said Opec had offered extra crude barrels to the market in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which knocked out some US Gulf Coast oil refineries and hit supplies of products such a diesel and heating oil.

But he said there had been no takers. Eldin added he saw no major rise in demand for Opec oil next year.

The call on Opec won’t rise significantly next year. There is no need to increase production for us, Eldin told Reuters Television.

The 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producer group has been pumping nearly flat out at 30 million bpd to rein in prices. —Reuters