By Kunle Kalejaye with Agency Report
Opec’s Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri is optimistic that the group will reach a consensus on output policy when it meets in December, after it rattled oil markets when its last meeting ended in acrimony and without a deal.

Abdullah al-Badri also told Reuters that oil prices at or over $100 per barrel were “reasonable”, suggesting Opec will not rush to adjust supplies.

“There will be a consensus on whatever decision they will take,” Badri told Reuters. “I’m sure Opec will stay as one group. They are one group now but, yes, we did not have a consensus at the last meeting but I am sure that December’s meeting will be positive.”

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Opec allies raised production unilaterally after failing at the group’s last meeting in June to convince other members to agree a coordinated increase to meet a shortfall in supplies from Libya. The collapse of the meeting and Opec’s inability to revise its production target last changed in December 2008 raised questions about the effectiveness of the group, which pumps more than a third of the world’s oil.

Opec meets on 14 December in Vienna. Badri said it was too early to say what the group would decide, but he was confident the 12-member group would reach a deal as it has overcome previous disagreements.

“We’ve been around 50 years. We have in the past very difficult meetings. I don’t consider it as a crisis at all.”

Badri spoke on the sidelines of the Oil & Money conference, an annual gathering of the oil industry in London. Oil prices, which hit a 2011 high of $127 per barrel in April, were trading above $110 per barrel.

“I think the market is balanced. Prices are comfortable. I don’t say I am happy or not, but I think they are reasonable,” Badri said.

His view contrasted with that of the International Energy Agency, adviser to oil-consuming countries. IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said prices above $100 made economic recovery difficult.

Opec, like other forecasters, has been lowering oil demand estimates due to weaker economies, and in a monthly report trimmed its demand numbers further. But Badri told reporters earlier on that he did not expect a double-dip recession.

Oil’s rise earlier this year was partly in response to the loss of supplies from Libya, an Opec member which pumped 1.6 million barrels per day, almost 2% of world supply, before the civil war.