The head of the International Energy Agency said today that current high oil prices were partly to blame for sluggish world economic growth.
Mr Claude Mandil said high prices also damaged the long-term interests of oil exporting countries in OPEC, because they would lose market share to rival exporters.
"The prices are too high for everybody, too high for the world economy, and that is one of the reasons the economy is sluggish and not recoveriung very well," Mr Mandil told reporters at a news conference in Vienna.
"It is not good for consuming countries and in the long term it is not good for OPEC countries either because with such a price they are losing market share" he added.