Brent oil price trades at $106, OPEC countries complain over IEA

Brent oil futures open today’s trading session around $106 a barrel after closing yesterday’s session higher, whilst OPEC member countries complain over the recent IEA decision to release oil reserves in an attempt to drive oil prices lower.

Latest Brent Oil Price

In London, Brent crude oil futures for August 2011 delivery was trading at $106.00 a barrel, 05.55 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange. The contract closed yesterday’s trading session up 0.7 percent at $106.44 a barrel.

OPEC Member Complaints

OPEC member country Iran sees no need to supply the oil market with extra crude oil, Oil Ministry caretaker Mohammad Aliabadi told reporters on Monday, adding he was concerned about the principle of IEA consumer nations releasing strategic reserves.

“The market is under normal conditions. Supply and demand are desirable. There is no additional need for supply in the market. Why they are not abiding by those principles is really a big question for us. We believe that prices should be set by the market itself.” he told reporters before an OPEC meeting with EU officials for their annual exchange on energy issues.

To put the latest IEA move into perspective, the US will be releasing 30 million barrels of oil reserves, which is roughly five percent of the total US oil stocks.

IEA officials said they would consider whether more oil should be released in a month. This is only the third time an administration has tapped into US oil reserves since 1973 in response to the Arab oil embargo. The other two times were in response to a war and natural disaster…

Last week’s announcement of the oil release program was made by IEA, buy you can’t help but wonder if the US wasn’t heavily involved in the decision. After all, the US is the largest member of the IEA, and is making half the release itself.

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Brent oil price trades at $106, OPEC countries complain over IEA