Venezuela: OPEC nearing maximum capacity

The Associated Press

Venezuela’s oil minister said Aug. 6 that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is reaching maximum capacity after increasing production quotas earlier this year.

“The capacity of OPEC is reaching the maximum,” Rafael Ramirez told reporters at the Miraflores presidential palace.

Asked if OPEC would consider increasing production at its next meeting on Sept. 15, Ramirez said: “We don’t see that there are many possibilities. We are going to see how we enter the winter period.”

OPEC decided to raise its production ceiling by 2 million barrels a day on July 1 and followed with a 500,000-barrel increase in an effort to keep prices from rising. Its production ceiling is now 26 million barrels.

Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and the world’s No. 5 oil exporter.

Ramirez said high oil prices stemmed in part from “an aggressive foreign policy by the United States in the Middle East.”

Crude prices for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange ended Aug. 6 at US$43.95 a barrel amid concerns about production by the Russian oil company Yukos, which is embroiled in legal problems, and worries that OPEC has no spare capacity.