AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, May 24 (UPI) -- OPEC price hawks are fighting Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's weekend call for the cartel to boost production to ease recent gasoline price hikes.
Late last week Saudi Arabia said it would raise its crude oil output by a half-million barrels a day and called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost production by an overall 2 million barrels per day, the New York Times reported Monday.
On Sunday Venezuela joined Iraq in denying output was a main cause of high prices and instead attributed $40 per barrel crude oil prices to the war in Iraq.
"The market is already sufficiently supplied with oil," said Rafael Ramirez, the energy minister of Venezuela. Instead, he said, high taxes, particularly in the United States and Europe, and fighting in Iraq were responsible.
Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf emirates often clash with other OPEC members over output. Cartel members whose oil reserves are relatively short-lived typically seek higher prices than those, like Saudi Arabia, whose reserves are expected to last most of the century.
Despite the disagreements, the Saudis expressed confidence a production increase would be approved when OPEC meets on June 3 in Beirut.
