Publish Date: 9 October 2012 - 19:37

Former Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazzemi said the current oil price in the global markets is not fair.

"The current $107 per barrel price is not favorable for oil," Mir-Kazzemi said, adding that the price oil is low compared with other commodities.

Mir-Kazzemi, who is now chairman of the parliament's Energy Commission, said the price of a liter of gasoline is two to three times more than the price of crude oil in the European countries and "the income from oil tax in the EU countries is much greater than their revenues".

Oil rose to around $113 a barrel on Tuesday after two days of losses, with tensions in the Middle East and the risk of supply disruptions outweighing concerns about sluggish global demand.

Yet, Iran's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said the current fluctuations in oil prices have not affected gasoline prices in the West much, underlining that the main reason behind rising fuel prices in the US and European countries is the heavy tax levied on fuel.

Khatibi said levying 70 to 80 percent tax on fuel leads to rising prices for the United States and European consumers and pressures arising from high prices affect ordinary peoples' life.
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