Global oil price to stay high: World Bank economist

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Global oil prices, which have rallied sharply this year, will remain high, ranging between $104 and $108 a barrel, a world bank official said on Monday.

Oil soared more than $16 a barrel - over 13 percent - in a two-day rally on Thursday and Friday on weakness in the U.S. dollar and rising tension between Israel and Iran.

"The (oil) price will stay high for some time. The projection by the World Bank (is that) in the medium term the price will range between $104 to $108 per barrel," the World Bank's chief economist Justin Lin told reporters at a conference in Cape Town.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have said they see no need to pump more oil in response to the surge in prices.

"I think that they (OPEC nations) do have the incentive with such a high (oil) price," Lin told journalists.

Earlier on Monday Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said OPEC was powerless to affect the volatility in world oil prices and an emergency meeting would only fuel speculation and exacerbate the problem.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by James Jukwey)