OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais spoke on Wednesday with CNBC.

On the spike higher in oil prices, not OPEC’s fault:

• “There are other factors beyond OPEC that are really behind the spike we have seen in gas [and] in oil. And again, I think in a nutshell, for me, it is underinvestment — chronic underinvestment”

And:

• OPEC has a “solid” relationship with Moscow
• OPEC seeks to separate politics from its market stabilizing objectives

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Comments elsewhere:

• world oil demand will rise by almost 3mb/d this year
• said there is a high chance of a supply squeeze this year, in part because fears of lowing usage in China are exaggerated

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OPEC and non-OPEC producers are next scheduled to meet on September 5.