  |
OPEC chief says world economy surviving high oil prices
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 05 31 06The world economy shows every sign of shrugging off the impact of sky-high oil prices, acting OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo said Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries here Thursday, he told reporters: "There has been no significant evidence that these oil prices have an effect on growth.
"Otherwise we wouldn't see the growth we see in OECD countries," the Nigerian acting head of the 11-nation OPEC's secretariat said.
Industrialised economies are growing at a robust 3.1 percent this year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said last week. But it warned that the United States may have to raise interest rates further.
Barkindo shrugged off the chances of a slowdown in the world's biggest economy if the Federal Reserve continues to hike rates.
"We have not seen any evidence of that. To the contrary, the US economy is continuing to grow," he said.
Oil prices have vaulted to more than 70 dollars a barrel owing to supply constraints along with geopolitical jitters linked to Iran's nuclear ambitions and unrest in Nigeria.
OPEC members say they are pumping as much oil as they can, and are powerless to rein in a speculative frenzy stoked by the political concerns.
Barkindo said he agreed with calls for "world leaders to pay more attention to the fact that oil prices are to some degree influenced by geopolitical tensions".
The oil market is also now nervous about the impending Atlantic hurricane season. Last summer, powerful storms knocked out a slew of US oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico to drive oil prices to then-record highs.
"We have to hope and pray that meteorological forecasts for the hurricane season are wrong," Barkindo said, after US government experts predicted another unusually active summer of hurricanes.
The Nigerian official did not comment on what the OPEC countries will decide to do about their production quotas at Thursday's meeting in the Venezuelan capital.
Analysts expect the cartel to maintain its current total production quota of 28 million barrels a day.
AFP 30 1603 GMT 05 06
Copyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels