OPEC members saw no need to pump more oil in response to last week's double-digit surge in oil prices to over $139 a barrel. More pain was coming for consuming economies hurting from record fuel costs as prices were likely to climb further, officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said. Oil soared more than $16 a barrel – over 13 percent – in a two-day rally on Thursday and Friday on weakness in the US dollar and rising tension between Israel and Iran. “I think there is enough oil in the market,” Shokri Ghanem, head of OPEC member Libya's National Oil Corporation, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Oil eased on Monday after the biggest one-day price gain in the history of the market left traders and analysts divided over the explanation. US light, sweet crude for July delivery fell by $1.64 to $136.90 by 0940 GMT, while Brent futures dropped $2.09 to $135.60. US prices surged by nearly $11 on Friday to a new record above $139 a barrel, taking two-day day gains to more than $16 a barrel and reversing two weeks of losses. Frantic buying was triggered by a range of factors, including a forecast by investment bank Morgan Stanley that oil prices could top $150 a barrel by the July 4 US holiday, as well as by a falling US dollar. Goldman Sachs' global head of commodities research Jeffrey Currie on Monday reinforced Morgan Stanley's view, telling a conference “demand for oil is weak, but supplies are even weaker.” “I would suggest that the likelihood of that happening sooner has increased tremendously ... some time in summer,” Currie said with reference to oil at $150. Tens of thousands of truckers in Spain, France and Portugal on Monday stepped up protests against rising fuel prices, causing mayhem on highways and blocking border crossings. Huge tailbacks built up around major cities and on the French-Spanish border as French fishermen in Mediterranean ports ended their three-week strike over the spiraling cost of fuel. South Korean truckers voted on Monday to strike over high oil prices, piling more pressure on the export-dependent country's new president whose policies have sparked mass street protests. Lee Myung-bak has seen his support nosedive after only 100 days in office due to simmering anger over a US beef import deal, jeopardizing his business-friendly economic reform plans. The truckers' union added to the negative sentiment with a majority of its members voting on Monday to stop work unless the government introduced new countermeasures to cope with soaring diesel prices. In a bid to win back public support, he is expected to announce within days a cabinet reshuffle.
