By ROGERIO JELMAYER

The recent rise in global oil prices to as high as $123/bbl represented a "peak" and does not change Brazil's forecast for average prices in 2012 of $100/bbl, Maria das Gracas Foster, chief executive of state-run energy company Petrobras, said in a television interview Thursday night.

"We don't believe that this recent high level [of oil prices] is going to hold," she told the Globo television network.

"The trend is for prices to fall as geopolitical pressures in oil-producing countries diminish through the course of the year."

She said that, according to Petrobras economists, oil prices could fall even lower "in the next few years," reaching $80 or $90 a barrel.

Foster denied any plans by Petrobras to raise domestic fuel prices, saying the company "operates on the basis of long-term trends."

Dow Jones Newswires