OPEC says extra oil would not ease bottlenecks

Jun 11, 2007, 13:55 GMT

Nicosia- Putting additional oil on the market would not do anything to ease the bottlenecks in the US market which have been driving up prices, but would lead to greater stock building, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Monday.

OPEC Secretary General Abdallah al-Badri was quoted by the Cyprus- based weekly Middle East Economic Survey as saying that while the tight US gasoline situation was due to refinery outages and pipeline problems, it would ease as refinery utilisation rose.

Asked whether the organization was prepared to consider additional oil supplies in an effort to damp down high oil prices, he said, 'as soon as we see refinery utilization reaching 95 per cent plus, the gasoline situation will ease.'

'In OPEC we think adding more oil to the market will not ease the situation and any extra barrels will be used to build stocks,' Badri added.

Questioned on whether OPEC was concerned about the inflationary impact of high oil prices and a possible reduction in medium-term demand, Badri said there was no sign that inflation and economic growth had shown much sensitivity to high oil prices.

He noted that while US economic growth had fallen short of estimates at 0.7 per cent in the first quarter, it was now recovering.

'Now I think it is recovering and recovering very rapidly. So [economic growth] has nothing to do with the high oil price,' he added.

Asked whether OPEC was concerned about oil prices above 70 dollars a barrel, Badri pointed out that nearby Brent futures had averaged just 61.72 dollars a barrel so far in 2007, with West Texas Intermediate averaging 60.34 dollars a barrel.