The Secretary-General of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), Jamal Al-Loughani, said, Monday, the revival of the (NOPEC) bill project “threatens the oil market.” In a press release, Al-Loughani affirmed that the draft law (which aims to introduce amendments to the US anti-monopoly law by canceling the sovereign immunity that protects the (OPEC) and the national oil companies in its member states from judicial accountability) would lead, if approved, to the inability of supplies to meet future demand.
He also noted that the (OPEC) countries do not set oil prices at all since the beginning of the eighties, and all that they mainly target is to ensure the stability and balance of the global oil market.
The OAPEC Chief stated that the supporters of the (NOPEC) bill claim that (OPEC) is seeking to set global oil prices, which led to higher prices for consumers around the world, without heeding the high global inflation wave that prompted central banks to raise interest rates to rein in, amid fears of a recession in the global economy.
The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC) was a US Congressional bill, was designed to remove the state immunity shield and to allow the international oil cartel, OPEC, and its national oil companies to be sued under US antitrust law for anti-competitive attempts to limit the world’s supply of petroleum and the consequent impact on oil prices.
Source: Kuwait News Agency