OPEC Rejects US Bill Against Oil Price FixingOPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez Araque on Thursday rejected a bill introduced to the United States Congress that would enable legal actions to be taken against the organization's member countries."To judge an organization, whose members are sovereign states and act to defend their common interests, as a simple commercial entity is an absurdity that violates the most basic legal principles," Rodriguez said in an official statement released here. Two US senators recently presented a bill to Congress that would enable the US Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to bring action against foreign countries, including the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member countries, for alleged collusive practices in setting the price or production levels of petroleum products. In the statement, Rodriguez pointed out that the bill is of "political nature" and "has been brought about by domestic problems in US politics." He went on to say that the sharp fuel price increases in the US were generated by a bottleneck in supplies of gasoline and other fuels, due in turn to new stringent environmental regulations, coupled with declining US refining capacity. As for OPEC's job, Rodriguez stressed the organization "simply works in order to maintain the balance of the international oil market. It provides the difference between demand and supplies from non-OPEC producers. By doing this, we seek to stabilize the demand/supply balance and consequently, prices." "Oil price stability is an essential ingredient for sound economic growth," the secretary general added. Meanwhile, Rodriguez rejected a injunction by a federal judge in Alabama which means to forbid OPEC control of crude production, saying the decision by the court is "inconsistent with international and domestic US law." On Wednesday, Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Alvaro Silva Calderon also rejected the sentence of the judge. In statements to the local press, Silva classed it as inadmissible and absolutely contrary to the decision and affirmed that the organization will defend itself from the "juridical absurdity". |
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