OPEC sees no quick fix for oil price scare

But OPEC is telling consumer nations that it is not to blame for a spike in prices that has kept US crude above $40 a barrel for 10 days. ‘‘I don’t think that control is in OPEC’s hands,’’ said UAE Oil Minister Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri on his arrival in Amsterdam. ‘‘There are many factors behind these prices.’’

The cartel is under heavy pressure from major consuming nations to take action and open the taps on what is left of its spare production capacity. ‘‘It has been made clear often enough recently that the high oil price is a problem,’’ German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement said in Berlin. ‘‘It’s certainly a great risk. Nobody wins when the very positive development of the global economy is put at risk,’’ he added.

US refinery bottlenecks, West Asian security worries and heavy speculation on crude futures by investment hedge funds have all helped drive up oil prices.

OPEC ministers will gather for a short meeting on Saturday morning, ahead of a scheduled conference of oil producing and consuming countries, that runs until Monday. But the 11-member cartel will wait until its full meeting in Beirut on June 3 to decide policy, by which time $40 oil may be more firmly entrenched.

‘‘It is not an extraordinary meeting. We can only send some signal to the market,’’ said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, about Saturday’s talks.

Leading producer Saudi Arabia has called for output quotas to go up by at least 1.5 million barrels daily from OPEC’s official 23.5 million BPD limit. But the group freely admits that it is already pumping more than two million BPD in excess of formal quotas. Spare capacity is limited mostly to Saudi Arabia, which has already informed buyers it will lift deliveries in June. —(Reuters)