SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Jan 16: US President George W. Bush voiced hope Opec will increase oil output to combat high world prices, after his talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude producer.
“The president said there’s a hope that as a result of these conversations that Opec would be encouraged to authorise an increase in production,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Wednesday after Bush arrived in Egypt from Riyadh.
“He’s worried about high oil prices and how they can negatively affect economies around the world,” Perino told reporters travelling with Bush on his eight-day tour of the region, which wrapped up on Wednesday in Egypt.
“He says that the king says that he understands the situation.” During his two-day visit to Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bush had said that he planned to discuss with the monarch “the fact that oil prices are very high, which is tough on our economy.”
The United States is facing recession fears at home after prices briefly surged to a record $100 at the start of the year. The state of the economy has been a key issue in the campaign for the November presidential election.
“The president reiterated the issue of there being tight supply and very high and rising demand, not just in America, but around the world, especially in India and China,” Perino said.
But Opec secretary general Abdullah al-Badri told AFP that high oil prices were not caused by a shortage of supplies and that other factors were to blame.—AFP
Our Correspondent from Riyadh adds: Opec’s crude output is going up, overtaking its production output in recent months. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) produced an average 32.03 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in December, a Platts survey of Opec and oil industry officials said.
This is up from November’s rate of 31.65 million b/d.
Production from Opec’s 10 members bound by crude output agreements averaged 27.43 million b/d in December, the survey showed.
This is 460,000 b/d more than in November and 177,000 b/d higher than the group’s 27.253 million b/d target which came into effect at the beginning of November.
It appears the group is on track to meet its January target, which is nearly 29.7 million barrels per day for 11 of the members, excluding Iraq.