OPEC signals that oil prices may need boost under $65

If crude oil prices drop to $65 a barrel then some OPEC member countries may consider the price is too cheap, Kuwait’s oil minister said, declining to comment on any action that the group might take to support prices.

“This will draw our attention,” Sheikh Ahmad al-Sabah told reporters today at parliament in Kuwait City. At the same time, OPEC member countries do not need to consider $65 as a minimum threshold below which it will act to try to lift prices, he said.

OPEC must provide a “clear signal” of what it considers a floor price for crude to discourage investors from pulling out of the oil market, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a research note yesterday.

Oil prices have recently dropped to trade as low as $64.24 earlier this month as investors sold the commodity on concern that Europe’s debt crisis may spread. Crude oil futures for July delivery rose as much as $2.12, or 3.1 percent yesterday to $70.87 a barrel today in electronic trading on the NYMEX.

Sentiment in commodities and financial markets, rather than the fundamentals of oil supply and demand, are driving crude prices lower, Sheikh Ahmad said. OPEC does “not yet” need to call for an emergency meeting, he said. The group’s next scheduled gathering is in October.

OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri has said that oil prices of between $70 and $90 are reasonable and encourage producers to intensify efforts to explore for crude. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, representing the group’s biggest exporter, said on March 30th that he hoped oil prices would remain within a range of $70 to $80.