OPEC Has Not Set Firm Oil Price Floor

OPEC has not formally set a firm oil price floor that it intends to defend, the group's president said on Tuesday, despite comments from Venezuela that the producer group wanted to keep prices above $60 a barrel.

"OPEC does not have a floor.... but we know when prices have fallen," Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's senior oil official, told a forum in South Korea.

He declined to comment on how prices may move next year.

OPEC has not officially set a new price band or target since abandoning its $22-$28 range three years ago, although price hawks Iran and Venezuela last week both indicated that the group would no longer tolerate prices below $60 a barrel.

The group last month agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) - its first formal output curbs since 2004 - to halt a slump in prices from a mid-July U.S. record of $78.40 to less than $57 two weeks ago.