Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said here Sunday that there were geopolitical circumstances and psychological reasons behind high oil prices.

Sheikh Ahmad, who is also Kuwait's energy minister, made the remarks to reporters after the opening of the fifth meeting of the Arab Union of Workers in Fields of Oil, Mines and Chemicals.

He ruled out supply and demand were pumping up oil prices, saying that it was subjected to "complicated issues", foremost the Middle East Peace process, security in Iraq and international terrorism.

When the United States announced that its oil reserves did not change compared with previous years, oil prices dropped for some days and they rebounded, he explained.

The OPEC president said the oil market has enough supply because there were already around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) over quota, resulted from the over-quota output following OPEC meeting in the Iranian city of Isfahan in mid-March.

During the meeting, the oil cartel increased output by 500,000 bpd to 27.7 million bpd and decided it might add another 500,000 bpd if prices remain high from March until June.

Sheikh Ahmad stressed that OPEC is capable of supplying oil markets especially due to the growing oil investments in the member states including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nigeria, Libya, Indonesia, Algeria and Qatar.