OPEC Director Says Price of Oil May Rise To Keep Pace With the High Inflation Rate

The members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will be forced to raise the price of crude oil unless the high worlwide rate of inflation is checked, the secretary general of OPEC told a group of approximatley 75 at the Science Center yesterday.

Ali Jaideh said the members of OPEC want to keep the price of oil in line with the rate of inflation to achieve their domestic development objectives.

Indexing the price of oil would ensure a supply of low-cost energy for the future, he added.

The low prices the oil exporting countries charged for crude oil a decade ago drastically depleted their domestic supply, and jeopardized their long-term development objectives, he said.

He said American newspapers have blamed the high inflation rate in the United States on rising oil prices, but in reality oil prices have had only a "marginal effect" on the economy.

Increasing oil prices have only contributed to one or two per cent of the current inflation rate in the United States, he said.

The members of OPEC receive only 35 per cent of the retail price of oil, Jaideh said, adding the difference is made up primarily of import taxes.

Consuming countries extract 40 per cent of the value of crude oil in taxes, so they virtually determine the final price of the oil and the supply and demand relationship, he said.

Jaideh said affluent countries naturally waste a tremendous amount of energy resources every year, and therefore must adopt energy policies which are oriented toward a conservation of these resources.

Countries must develop short-term alternatives to oil, such as unclear energy, coal and other fossil fuels, he said.

The state of Montana, for example, has more potential energy in the form of coal than Saudi Arabia has in the form of oil.

The development of solar energy has not been extensive enough to be feasible in the shot-run, but he said countries must explore all the alternatives to oil to find some future long-term energy resource.