According to the oil producers’ cartel Opec, the blame lies with speculators in the international markets. But Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, describes that view as “a myth”.
He argues that the main cause is the tight balance between global supply and demand.
BP’s new Statistical Review of World Energy - a key information source for many people in the industry - highlights what has been going on.
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There is nothing OPEC can do to reduce record oil prices, so there is no need for the organisation to hold an emergency meeting before September, Qatar’s oil minister said on Sunday.
“We don’t need to meet before September because we have nothing to do before September,” Abdullah al-Attiyah told Reuters by telephone. “The oil price is out of our control.”
Attiyah said oil supplies were sufficient and there was no demand from refiners for more supplies.
An OPEC source said on Friday that the producer group might consult on whether it needs to boost oil output before a scheduled meeting in September should crude oil prices keep rising.
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