Opec may raise its target price for oil despite concerns that soaring crude prices may trip up the global economic recovery.
Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the president of Opec, said that the oil producers' cartel was mulling a shift to its long-standing target price of between $22 and $28 a barrel.
"The new range will not be adopted quickly," Mr Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's Oil Minister, told Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian newspaper.
"Naturally the new range will take into consideration various factors like changes in foreign exchange rates and inflation."
With many Opec countries holding gripes that the weakness of the dollar, in which oil is traded, has trimmed their earnings from crude despite a rising market, the statement will be taken as a sign of the cartel's enthusiasm for a higher prices. Opec will discuss revising its target range at a meeting in September.
Mr Yusgiantoro's statement comes despite the price of benchmark US crude hitting a 21-year high of $42.45 a barrel this week after attacks at the Saudi Arabian oil hub of Khobar raised fears over supplies from the world's most important oil producer.
Prices eased this morning after Opec's decision yesterday to raise output quotas by 2.5 million barrels a day although, with member's already exceeding production targets, the decision is viewed as unlikely to have a significant impact on supplies. The price of US crude slid by $0.02 a barrel to $39.26 a barrel in Singapore trade.
Last night the price of US crude closed $0.68 a barrel lower in New York.
Many analysts have warned that Opec is, anyway, powerless to bring the oil price back below $30 a barrel.
Bill O'Grady, an analyst at AG Edwards in the US, said: "Opec's action won't have a dramatic effect on oil prices because we do not have a supply shortage.
"What we have is a fear of instability and fear of disruption. OPEC fixing supply does not fix that. What we need is peace in the Middle East."
Oil importing nations have been left to count the cost of rising prices with BDI, the German industry federation, this morning warning that it may lower forecasts for growth in Europe's largest economy.
Reinhard Kudiss, the BDI economist, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper: "If the oil price remains at the current level over a longer period of time, we would not be able to keep our growth prognosis."
