But Mohammed Barkindo said the 11-nation organisation, which had one of its best financial years in 2005, believes other factors are also influencing the market, including refinery bottlenecks in consuming countries, geopolitical tensions, and speculation. For this reason, OPEC wants other producers and consumers to support its efforts to ensure stability in the oil market, especially in resolving the downstream bottlenecks through new investments. " In short, OPEC's strategy for 2006 is a continuation of that of 2005 - to ensure that the market remains well-supplied with crude oil both now and in the future," he told the Pipeline oil magazine in an interview. " We have adopted a two-pronged approach to this, by raising our production by more than 4.5 million barrels a day since 2003, and by our Member Countries accelerating their plans to bring on-stream new production capacity to meet the forecast continued demand growth and to re-establish a comfortable level of spare capacity to cope with unexpected surges in demand. This strategy has repeatedly helped calm markets during the past two difficult years, and will continue to do so in 2006," he said in the interview, obtained by WAM ahead of its publication next week. But he noted that other factors are also influencing the market, notably tightness in downstream capacity in consumer markets, geopolitical tensions, extreme weather patterns and increased speculation in futures markets. He said this should prompt other producers and consumers to support OPEC's efforts to stabilise the market by investing heavily in new refining projects. He also called on the industrial countries to cut energy taxes. " We should like them to support our market-stabilisation measures as much as possible, because these have been undertaken in the interests of all parties in the market. When they are successful, all parties benefit - OPEC and non-OPEC producers, producers and consumers, the international oil companies, and so on," he said. " Indeed, much progress has been made in dialogue and cooperation in recent years. We have very much welcomed this, and the market is better-off for it too. We also expect the major consuming nations to realign their product taxes in line with price/tariff liberalisation in oil-producing developing countries. " In addition, the issue of downstream bottlenecks, that have become a major factor in the evolution of prices, needs to be addressed by both producers and consumers, as well as the national and international oil companies. Both investment capital and technology are required urgently in the downstream sector to moderate prices, as well as restore the supply/demand balance...However, all in all, we are confident that we are well set-up in 2006 for a constructive and cooperative approach among producers and consumers in handling the challenges that present themselves during the year." Asked about the expected level of prices this year, he said it is difficult to predict but added that a 50-dollar price could be achieved this year. "My immediate reaction is to say that oil price movements are, by their nature, cyclical, and that, as history has taught us repeatedly, they are very difficult to predict, particularly over long periods," he said. " Although crude oil prices are rather high at the present time for, principally, geopolitical reasons, we believe in general that they will moderate this year, trending towards a new equilibrium close to US $50 a barrel for OPEC's Reference Basket, which would be a better reflection of market fundamentals. The early signs are that there will be amply crude supply, comfortable stock levels and increasing spare capacity." PIN/WAM