Saudis offer to pump more oil

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Saudi Arabia's promise to increase its oil output and its call for increased production quotas from OPEC is creating a rare public rift in the group, with one country contending that unrest in Iraq, not production levels, is a main cause of the high cost of crude oil.

 

Individual members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have begun to speak out against raising output, in response to a statement from the Saudis on Friday that they were willing to produce an additional 500,000 barrels of oil a day to help curtail prices, which have been above $40 a barrel. The Saudis, who are under intense pressure to add supplies, said that OPEC should increase production by more than two million barrels a day.

 

On Sunday, Venezuela joined Iraq in dismissing production levels as a main cause of high prices and instead attributed them in large part to the war in Iraq.

 

"The market is already sufficiently supplied with oil," Rafael Ramírez, the energy minister of Venezuela, told reporters during a conference here. Instead, he said, high taxes, particularly in the United States and Europe, and unrest in Iraq were responsible.