SEOUL, 6 June 2006 — OPEC President Edmund Daukoru yesterday called for the international community to work to solve geopolitical tensions that help contribute to high oil prices. “Geopolitical tensions ... let the global community fix them,” Daukoru said, emphasizing that the 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has no political role itself.
Daukoru, who is also Nigeria’s petroleum minister, made the comments at a news conference in Seoul. He was in South Korea to meet government officials and attend an energy forum with South Korean business executives. “OPEC is not a political organization. OPEC is committed to stabilization of markets,” Daukoru said, adding that the organization doesn’t get involved in the foreign policies of its members.
Oil prices rose Monday. Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $1.24 to $73.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. “
Daukoru also said Nigeria takes seriously a spate of kidnappings of foreign oil workers in the country. “We condemn any form of hostage-taking as officials and we’ll do everything possible to stop it,” he said.
A group of unidentified militants who were demanding jobs and money kidnapped eight foreign oil workers Friday from an oil platform off Nigeria’s southeastern coast. They were released Sunday.
Unrest has plagued Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta region for years, and in recent months armed militants have stepped up a campaign against the oil industry, blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign workers.
Daukoru tried to calm investors. “There’s absolutely nothing to fear,” he said, calling the incidents “an expression of anxiety as to the pace of development.”
Daukoru said the young people involved are not part of a larger political movement and are “not terrorists, they’re not separatists. They’re just asking for more attention and more amenities.”
Daukoru said he was concerned about high oil prices, “because at a certain psychological level alternative competing fuels would start to divert investment that should have otherwise come into the oil sector.”
Daukoru said that current high oil prices are primarily caused by bottlenecks such as a lack of refining capacity. He added that factors including “widely varying gasoline specifications within countries and between countries,” a fragmented oil industry, “geopolitical tensions” and “speculative funds, hedge funds” also play a role.
