IEA wants more crude from OPEC

VIENNA, May 4 (UPI) -- The world's biggest oil cartel needs to start producing more crude oil to drive prices down on the energy market, the International Energy Agency said.

Oil and gasoline prices are at post-recession records because of a declining value of the U.S. dollar, a modest economic recovery and unrest in Libya, one of Africa's top oil producers.

Russia imposed stiff taxes on exports to keep more fuel products at home. Producers had sent more petroleum products out of the country to cash in on high prices, causing gasoline shortages on the domestic market. The U.S. energy sector is facing a similar scenario.

IEA Director Nobuo Tanaka was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries needed to produce more crude oil.

"It's a matter of price as (if the crude) is priced right, refineries will buy it and process it," he said.

OPEC leaders said there is plenty of crude oil on the market, just not in the form that refineries want. The oil cartel said repeatedly it doesn't see a need for an extraordinary meeting before June to consider the global oil shock.