Pump up the oil, Brown tells Opec

GORDON Brown is to spearhead an initiative aimed at persuading members of the 11-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to pump more oil and avoid a world energy crisis.

The Chancellor believes that Britain, as an oil producer in its own right, is well positioned to talk Opec into increased production.

Brown said: 'High and volatile oil prices pose a risk to the world's economic outlook.'

He said that he understood Opec countries were haunted by the prospect of a return to low prices seen in the late Nineties, but he believed he could allay their fears.

Brown was speaking this weekend in Washington at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund. He is the chairman of its ministerial committee.

Oil has touched $50 a barrel in recent days, double the level in April 2003, and five times the price seen at the end of the Nineties.

Security problems in the Middle East, political difficulties in Nigeria and Venezuela and roaring demand in China have all helped to send the price soaring.

Speaking to the Group of Seven major industrial nations, Brown proposed detailed plans to make the oil market more transparent. But he also admitted that more oil must be pumped and that the Opec cartel was key to this objective.

Brown said that Britain, as one of the oil producers, had a pivotal role to play in discussions between the West and Opec. He hinted at tax or other incentives in his Pre-Budget Report later this year that would encourage oil companies to continue working in the depleting fields of