Opec producers may be forced to take a drastic decision when they meet again in May if the price of oil is still very low, the group’s secretary-general Abdullah al-Badri said.

Badri told Reuters Television oil prices were too low at between $40 and $50 per barrel to allow vital investment and Opec members really needed prices well above the $50 level.

“We really cannot go too long” with prices at these levels, he said.

Opec decided at a meeting in Vienna on Sunday to leave existing oil production targets unchanged, but promised to enforce those curbs more strictly and said they would meet again at the end of May to review progress.

(Upstream Online)