tehran • A senior Iranian oil official expects the price of crude to increase by five percent during the summer high gasoline demand season and by another five percent during the winter, the Isna news agency said yesterday.

“It is forecast that regarding the increase in gasoline demand in the driving season, the price of crude oil in this period will increase at least five percent and in the winter will have another five percent increase,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi, deputy director for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told Isna.

Khatibi also suggested that most Opec members were operating close to capacity. Iran is Opec’s No. 2 producer. “Therefore in the situation of an increase in the demand, there is no other way but to use the reserves,” he said.

“In the most optimistic situation, in the future supply and demand will seriously get close to each other and we will not have any additional supply,” he said. “In the pessimistic situation, oil demand in winter will reach an amount which supply can not meet ... “

Isna also reported him as saying non-Opec production was disappointing but that Opec members did not have major additional reserves available to boost output, so consumers may have to have to use their own reserves.

Opec will meet next in September.

In London yesterday, ICE Brent crude futures steadied near $68 a barrel, a day after a US government report showed an unexpected drop in domestic crude supplies.

Meanwhile, oil prices steadied near $68 a barrel yesterday after the restart of a major Nigerian oil pipeline, offsetting an unexpected fall in US crude supplies.

London Brent crude oil, currently a better indicator of the global market than US oil, fell 11 cents to $67.93 a barrel by 1518 GMT. US crude rose 40 cents to $64.41.

Community elders expelled protesters occupying a major oil export pipeline in Nigeria and reopened valves to allow crude oil to flow, a traditional chief said. "We can't tolerate that behaviour. We are at the manifold and the valves are open," said Blessing Kolzor, chairman of the K-Dere council of chiefs.

Royal Dutch Shell had been forced to reduce output by 150,000 barrels per day because of the protest, which began on Tuesday.

Some 922,000 bpd, a third of Nigeria's total output, is shut-in, mainly due to militant attacks and sabotage.

Nigeria's restart helped offset a surprise fall in US crude oil inventories.

Stocks in the world's top energy consumer declined by 2 million barrels last week on slowing imports, government data showed on Thursday. Analysts had expected an increase in stocks of 700,000 barrels.