OPEC chief blames refinery problems

OPEC’s Secretary General said Aug. 28 he saw no need to increase oil output and blamed refinery problems in the United States for sustained high prices.

“We see there’s no reason for a higher price because there’s enough oil in the market,” Abdalla Salem el-Badri told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview during a trip to Angola. “There’s no shortage (of crude) whatsoever.”

The International Energy Agency has urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lift oil output when it meets Sept. 11 in Vienna. The Paris-based organization said in its last monthly oil market report that world oil demand will probably outpace supply this winter.

However El-Badri, in Angola to discuss quotas with OPEC’s newest member, said that if the group put more oil into the market it would only add to stocks because of U.S. refinery glitches tightening demand.

“If you add more crude into the market, the crude will not go to refineries because refineries cannot handle it, it will go into stocks,” he said.

“The American refinery industry is really affecting the market at this time and prices are going up because of American refinery outages,” he said.

El-Badri held talks with Angolan officials on oil prices and production quotas. He said the talks were “fruitful” but declined to provide details.

Angola, the second-largest sub-Saharan oil producer, after Nigeria, produces about 1.4 million barrels a day. It is expected to reach 2 million barrels a day this year.

—The Associated Press