UK finance minister Gordon Brown Sep 13 called on OPEC to raise oil output to meet rising demand when the cartel meets in Vienna next week, saying international action was needed to stabilize global energy markets.

High crude prices -- currently around $63- 64/bbl but which surged above $70/bbl in New York as Hurricane Katrina struck the southern US in late August -- are increasing risks to economic growth, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, England. "Because this is at root a problem of demand outstripping supply, OPEC must respond at its meeting on Sep 19 by raising production," Brown told the TUC, which represents Britain's labor unions.

Brown's comments come as some truckers in the UK are threatening a repeat of oil refinery blockades to protest high fuel prices that almost brought the country to a standstill five years ago. But OPEC rejected any suggestion that it needed to do more to bring down record-high oil prices, pointing out that it had already boosted its crude output to more than 30-mil b/d and was investing heavily in projects to expand its overall production capacity. "I don't think OPEC has not done anything," a spokesman at OPEC's Vienna headquarters said. "We have increased our production and now we are producing 30-plus-mil b/d."

Brown also called on OPEC to use part of the revenue windfall resulting from the higher prices to boost investment in the energy sector. "...from the additional $300-bil a year in revenue OPEC countries are now enjoying and the additional $800-bil available to oil producers there must be additional new investment in production and global investment in refining capacity," he said.

The value of OPEC's oil exports rose by $100-bil to $349-bil in 2004, the highest on record, an OPEC publication showed Sep 12. "We are taking part of that money and channelling it into our investment projects," the OPEC spokesman said. "That is why we are expecting OPEC to have at least 5-mil b/d of spare capacity by 2010. So we are not just enjoying the money. We are taking our responsibilities very seriously." "It's important for all parties to sit down and have a constructive dialogue and look at the deep-seated problems facing the oil industry," he added.

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