“OPEC is Not Behind this Price Increase,”: Al Ghais

Further colour on earlier comments by new OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais Wednesday in CNBC interview.

• “OPEC is not behind this price increase,”
• “There are other factors beyond OPEC that are really behind the spike we have seen in gas [and] in oil. And again, I think in a nutshell, for me, it is underinvestment — chronic underinvestment,”
• “This is the harsh reality that people have to wake up to and policymakers have to wake up to. Once that is realized I think then we can start to think of a solution here. And the solution is very clear. OPEC has a solution: invest, invest, invest,”
• The group said that “severely limited availability of excess capacity” meant it was necessary to proceed with “great caution.”
• “We have been increasing production in line with what we see and a gradual mechanism that has been very transparent … We are doing everything we can to bring the market back to balance but there are economic factors that are really beyond OPEC’s control,”
• “We try always in our meetings to separate the politics and the political aspects from what we do in terms of managing the market balance and in terms of what we do as OPEC+, I think the methodology is clear,”
• “Russia’s leadership in supporting the declaration of cooperation has been clear since day one, since 2017. The relationship is solid in terms of managing the market.”