OPEC should seek $100 oil price: Libya

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC needs a higher oil price of $100 a barrel because the rising costs of imports such as food have eroded OPEC members' income, Libya's top oil official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Oil has traded largely between $70 and $80 a barrel all year, a range many in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have said is high enough to give producers a decent income without hurting the world economy.

Still, members of OPEC, a group of 12 countries that rely on oil for most of their income, have been hurt by rising food costs, Shokri Ghanem, the chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp, said by telephone from Tripoli.

"It should be around $100 to compensate for the big increase in the food price," Ghanem said. "Prices of food have risen and it is tantamount to having a big cut in your income."

"OPEC countries who are importing their food from outside are facing a big increase in the import bill."

"We think $100 is the price OPEC should seek."

Wheat prices have risen by more than 50 percent since the end of May after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years and are at their highest since 2008.

Traders say Libya has been a major purchaser of Russian and Ukrainian grain and that could be in the market for alternative supplies following a Russian export ban and slowdown in exports from Ukraine.