Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah has called for serious talks with oil-consuming countries, warning that the demand for crude oil was rising too fast, in an interview published Friday.
"The demand for crude is going up at too fast a rate, while the supply of petrol in the world is limited," Sheikh Saud told the French daily Le Figaro.
"Only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can still raise their production levels in the short term," he added.
"We need to establish a serious and constructive dialogue with our main consumer countries, far from speculative movements, to find long-term solutions," the Kuwaiti minister continued.
"We have done our part of the work in raising oil production three times this year. We expect the consumer countries to do their part, by lowering the tax burden," he added.
On Sunday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) vowed to boost production by 800,000 barrels a day beginning in October to help cool an overheating market.
And on Wednesday, OPEC signaled it could begin pumping an additional two million barrels of crude a day to avoid major economic disruption throughout the world.
The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper quoted Sheikh Saud on Thursday as saying: "Our quota has been increased by 64,000 barrels per day but we do not have the necessary capacity for such an increase.
"Kuwait cannot produce a single barrel more." He told Al-Hayat that he did not expect oil prices to fall from 10-year highs in the foreseeable future.—AFP.
©--AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE.
