Market supplied with enough oil, OPEC official says

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"Oil supply to the market is enough and high oil prices are not due to a shortage of crude but rather it is because of the decrease in the dollar's value, shortage of refinery capacity and some political tensions in the world," OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri was quoted as saying by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The oil market is supplied with enough crude and OPEC is not under pressure to raise output, the group's secretary-general was quoted as saying on Saturday during a visit to Iran.

"Oil supply to the market is enough and high oil prices are not due to a shortage of crude but rather it is because of the decrease in the dollar's value, shortage of refinery capacity and some political tensions in the world," OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri was quoted as saying by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

His views were in line with those often voiced by officials in Iran, the second-largest producer in the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"OPEC is not under any pressure ... to raise crude output," Badri told reporters in Tehran, according to IRNA.

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He also made clear there were no plans to hold an OPEC emergency meeting before its next scheduled meeting in September. The group last met in early March.

"Because the increase in oil prices is not related to a shortage of supply and because crude markets are stable ... OPEC members did not see a reason to hold an emergency meeting," Badri said.

Iran's state broadcaster IRIB quoted him as saying: "Currently there is enough oil in the market and there is no need to change OPEC's crude output. Nobody can put pressure on OPEC because we decide based on our own interest."

Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Friday as weakness in the U.S. dollar following a batch of soft jobs data outweighed fears of a demand slowdown in the world's biggest energy consumer.

U.S. crude settled up $2.40 to $106.23 a barrel while London Brent crude gained $2.38 to $104.90.

But oil's gains remained tempered by mounting concerns that an economic slowdown in the United States will significantly reduce overall demand for energy -- a factor that has pulled crude back from last month's record $110.80.

Asked whether OPEC members may abandon the dollar for pricing oil, Badri said "each individual country can decide to get its oil income in currencies other than the dollar based on its interests." But he suggested any such move for OPEC as a whole would take time, IRIB said.

Iran, supported by Venezuela, has lobbied within OPEC for the group to switch to a basket of currencies for its pricing.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Sami Aboudi)