Cheney says high oil price reflects market reality

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Crude oil prices in excess of $100 a barrel reflect the reality in the market place, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday.

Cheney, on a trip to the Middle East that started in Iraq, said he did not see a lot of excess production capacity worldwide.


Cheney this week will visit Saudi Arabia, where President George W. Bush in January called on OPEC to increase production.

Asked about the prospects for increased oil production in the region, Cheney told reporters in Baghdad traveling with him: “One of the problems we’ve got now obviously is that there is not a lot of excess capacity worldwide.”

He said statistics from a Washington energy consulting group had shown that “there’s just not a lot out there, and some of that excess capacity represents high sulfur crude for example, it’s not very attractive and not easily marketed.”

Reuters