QUITO, May 22: Opec chief Abdala El Badri on Thursday said members were unhappy with surging prices he blamed on speculators and a weak US dollar.

“We are not very happy with this increase in oil prices,” said El-Badri during a visit to Ecuador.

“Volatility has nothing to do with the fundamentals. It has nothing to do with world demand,” he said, stressing that a dropping dollar was driving prices higher.

“The price was at $130 and today is at $135, so it’s really a crazy market,” he said.

El-Badri, Opec’s secretary general, is on a week-long working visit to the two Opec member states in Latin America, Venezuela and Ecuador.

In a statement released by the cartel on Wednesday, El-Badri said that Opec remained committed “to working for the stability of the international oil market, noting that the current high oil prices are not influenced by market fundamentals, as the market is well-supplied.

—AFP