Opec president Chakib Khelil said on Saturday he expected oil prices to keep rising during the first quarter of this year before stabilising in the following quarter.
"The rise is likely to continue until the end of the first quarter 2008 and will stabilise in the second quarter," Khelil, who is also Algerian Energy and Mines Minister, told the Algerian official news agency APS.
He linked the steady rise of oil prices to "political tension in Pakistan, escalating violence in Nigeria and a decline of oil inventories in the United States", APS added.
In further comments relayed by Algerian state radio, Khelil said Opec's next meeting would closely study forecasts for world economic growth, particularly those of the United States, which has been seriously affected by the subprime mortgage crisis.
The world market had sufficient oil supplies for now and no decision could be made to increase production before the next Opec conference, it cited him as saying.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to meet next on Feb. 1 in Vienna.
"Investment funds and speculators are behind the recent hike," Abdullah al-Attiyah told al-Jarida newspaper in comments published on Friday. "The market is not suffering from any luck in supplies, and there is no disturbance in producers' regions."
Opec, a source of more than a third of the world's oil, decided to keep oil output steady at a Dec. 5 meeting, rebuffing calls from consumer countries for more supply to rein in prices then trading at around $90.