Although the supply of crude oil remains sufficient, the world currently experiencing an oil price surge must learn to live with such a high pricing level in many years forward, a world oil organization leader has said.

Eivald Roren, president of the World Petroleum Council (WPC) which will kick off its triennial conference from Sunday in Johannesburg, also said an extremely tight capacity in refining sector bottlenecked the oil industry which has seen the price rocketing in the past months.

The world has entered into a new price level and "I can hardly see those days of 18 or 20 dollars per barrel of oil will come back," Roren told a press briefing ahead of the conference.

World crude prices surpassed the record 70 US dollars a barrel after Hurricane Katrina hit the United States' vital Gulf Coast oil production and refining region in late August, shutting in and damaging much of the US refining and production capacity.

"I think we have to live with this new (price) level in many years forward," Roren said.

He said although the supply of crude oil is sufficient and the reserve capacity is ready for production, the bottleneck is in refining industry.

The capacity for production in refining sector became extremely tight even before the hurricane season, he said. It has been reported that pre-Hurricane Katrina refining capacity in the United States was already at the breaking point as refineries operating at 96 percent.

Roren said it will take a few weeks before those refineries can start up again. The 18th World Petroleum Congress brings the world's largest oil, petroleum and gas event to Africa for the first time, as oil tops the global agenda.

The industry is expected to focus heavily on the exploration and consolidating of activity around sustainable solutions, according to Fred Ayanda Mjekula, chairman of the South African national committee of the WPC.

The congress, which runs from September 25 to 29, is expected to draw about 4,000 delegates from across the world including petroleum industry pioneers and high level government representatives.

Founded in London in 1933, the WPC is an international, unbiased, non-political organization that provides a forum for discussing world issues facing the oil and gas industry. It is dedicated to scientific advances in the oil and gas industries, technology transfer and to promote the management of the world's petroleum resources for the benefit of mankind.

Source: Xinhua