Opec rejects EU demand to increase oil production

Opec has rejected European Union calls to pump more crude so consuming nations can replenish stockpiles and ease the impact of supply disruptions from the Middle East and Africa.
“There is plenty of oil in the market, the stocks are very high, they are above the five-year average,” Abdalla el-Badri, the Opec secretary general said at a meeting with EU officials at Opec headquarters in Vienna yesterday.
“If we add more oil, it will not go to the refineries, it will go to the stocks.”
Officials of the 27-member EU, the second-largest oil consumer after the US, said oil prices could hurt global economic growth. Crude was trading near a nine-month high, close to $70 a barrel, in New York yesterday.
“I think it’s pretty close to the upper limit of what would be tolerable for many oil-consuming nations,” said German Economy and Technology Minister Michael Glos at the meeting in Vienna.
“Some economies find it harder than Germany to cope with, maybe. I think Opec itself has an interest in the balance of the global economy.”

Gulf Times