Refinery bottlenecks to dog oil industry until 2010

VIENNA (AFP) – High oil prices are still being propped up by a shortage of refinery capacity and there is little sign of the bottleneck easing until 2010, industry executives and officials discussing
OPEC’s future have warned.

That potential respite relies on the unlikely prospect all 66 refineries planned by oil companies and producers being built, as well as a total of about 300 billion dollars in investment by 2015, they added.

“The need for downstream capacity is just as important as other issues,” said Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency at a two-day conference which was continuing Wednesday.

“There is a general recognition now that no spare capacity in refining together with no spare capacity in crude production are the key factors we have to manage on high prices,” he added.

AFP