l0p.c. rise in oil prices expected

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33933, 28 August 1975, Page 13

l0p.c. rise in oil prices expected

.Vew Zealand Press Association —Copyright)

COLUMBIA. (U.S.), August 26.

The Finance Minister of the oil-rich Arab shiekhdom of Kuwait predicted today that, as a result of the shrinking U.S. dollar, oil prices would jump 10 per cent when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets next month.

Mr Abdulrahman Salem al-Teeqy told a news conference that de-control of oil; prices in the United States, would help Kuwait as much as the United States, that Americans wasted energy/ and that the oil companies; were to blame for the high; cost of oil. “The O.P.E.C. countries; never increased their prices! for the sake of increase," her said. "O.P.E.C. prices have! been depressed for 23 years; and no-one is willing to con-; sider this. ! “We have no say in the; posted price. We have no! say in the production. The nif companies exaggerated their production to dump the; market and bring prices; down. We lose but thev. benefit. They take this cheap, oil and sell it to their j affiliates and get the tre-1; mendous profit margins." 'i

He said that the oil companies made money transporting, refining, and distributing the oil. while > O.P.E.C. countries received only a small percentage from a posted price. “If oil prices were left ; logically to go up with market conditions, no problems would happen to the world,” he said. “No-one should i blame the oil countries for prices going up.” Mr al-Teeqy is the leader of a Kuwaiti delegation visiting South Carolina to check on its investment in Kiawah Island, which the Kuwaiti-owned Kuwait Investment Company, plans to develop into a resort complex over the next 10 to 15 years.

Mr al-Teeqy said that O.P.E.C. nations would continue to use oil embargoes as a weapon if they felt their survival threatened.