OPEC chief says will seek to balance market - paper

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Supply and demand alone will set oil prices in coming months and OPEC will seek to balance the market at its December meeting after recent declines, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said in remarks published on Sunday.

Prices had recently fallen from levels created by "perverse" speculative practices, Algerian government newspaper El Moudjahid quoted him as saying.

Khelil, who is also Algerian Energy and Mines Minister, also said: "In the months to come only supply and demand are going to regulate the market."

He said demand had declined by an estimated three million barrels per day as a result of falling requirements in the main consuming countries, while supply had remained steady, the paper said, referring to the impact of financial turbulence on the global economy.

The newspaper reported Khelil as saying that an appropriate decision to manage the effects of the crisis on oil prices would be taken at OPEC's next meeting in Oran, Algeria, on December 17.

The newspaper did not elaborate. But the independent Quotidien d'Oran newspaper reported Khelil as "not ruling out" a reduction in output limits by the export group in order to guarantee a balance in the market.