Oil prices likely to rise further: Libya

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices, which this week hit a record high near $123 a barrel, will probably rise even further, the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Wednesday.

Libya and fellow members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have blamed factors other than supply and demand for oil's record run. U.S. crude hit a record $122.73 on Tuesday.

"I think it will go higher," Shokri Ghanem, head of NOC, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It is the same old story -- speculation and geopolitics."

Oil has risen from below $20 in early 2002 and is widely predicted to continue its climb. The price could hit $200 within the next two years driven by poor supply growth, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) said this week.

Ghanem reiterated OPEC's view that the group, source of two in every five barrels of oil, does not need to increase production.

"It is not the fundamentals. We see enough supply. What can OPEC do? Very little."

OPEC oil supply fell in April to 31.64 million barrels per day, its lowest this year, as a strike cut Nigerian output and top OPEC exporters Saudi Arabia and Iran trimmed production, a Reuters survey showed last week.

The Libyan official also said it will take up to two months, longer than previously expected, to resume output at the 45,000 barrel-per-day al-Jurf oilfield offshore Libya.

"It will take more than a month, if not two months," he said. "We are working hard, but it is an offshore platform and we have to be sure of the safety."

Ghanem said on April 24 the field was shut down because of a damaged well and that it would take a few weeks to resume production.

The field is operated by operated jointly by NOC and France's Total (TOTF.PA).

(Reporting by Alex Lawler)