SHELL, BP & REPSOL blames high oil prices on supply problems

The heads of some of the world's biggest oil companies today countered Opec claims that speculators were driving high oil prices, instead blaming a lack of new supplies.

BP boss Tony Hayward said the argument that financial investors buying oil futures were behind a four-year rally that pushed oil prices to new records above $143 per barrel today was a "myth". He said the problem was a failure of supply growth to match demand growth.

"Supply is not responding adequately to rising demand," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Repsol chief executive Antonio Brufau agreed. "The fundamentals in the industry are the significant reasons for having these prices," he said.

"We don't think that the financial markets are leading the speculation, probably they follow what other people fear as long term fundamentals," Shell chief Jerome van der Veer said. "I do not think that you can blame speculation for the oil price".

The three big oil companies did their statements as a reply to the OPEC claim that speculation is the cause of the record high oil prices.

Source: Upstream Online