Venezuela’s Oil Minister Says OPEC Running Out of Spare Production Capacity

Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is running out of spare production capacity, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Tuesday.

“OPEC’s production capacity is reaching its limit,” Ramirez told reporters, adding that it is too early for OPEC to decide on a possible half-million barrel per day production increase.

Ramirez argued that geopolitical tension in the Middle East has contributed more to recent oil price rises than have any supply problems.
Oil prices opened at new record highs of above US$58 a barrel Monday, spurred by continuing worries about tight gasoline supplies in the United States.

Worries about tightening gasoline supplies continue to power the rally. Those worries have grown amid falling inventories of petroleum products and a slew of refinery problems in the United States and Venezuela.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company successfully restarted one of four crude processing units at Amuay refinery in western Venezuela and expects it to be operating normally by the end of the week, an official said Monday.

The unit started to work early Monday after a power outage last Thursday which stopped the refinery, which is the largest oil export refinery in the country.

Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and one of the top price hawks within OPEC, which produces nearly 40 percent of the world’s oil supply.

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