OPEC's acting secretary general said in Johannesburg that there would be no improvements to refining capacity before 2007.

Acting Secretary General Adnan Shihab-Eldin made the statement at Luncheons on the sideline with the on-going 18th World Petroleum Congress.

He said that there will be no significant improvements though there were now "encouraging signs from some of the majors on refining."

However, he said, the year of 2006 will see some increase in the oil refining capacity.

He said that OPEC's (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) existing crude capacity stood at 32.5 million barrels a day, though that is expected to climb to 38 million by 2010, " excluding a sizable increase" in Iraq's production capacity.

The secretary general also blamed international oil companies had failed to invest in refineries.

Shihab-Eldin said that "every OPEC country is investing in at least one new refinery," and some are investing abroad. New refining capacity will be added even in Iraq in the future.

"If this doesn't happen soon, downstream will continue to be a source of tightness" in the oil markets, he said.

Concerns about refining capacity, heightened by the devastation hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused in the United States have pushed the price of oil beyond 60 dollars a barrel.

Earlier on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi also said at the conference that world oil reserves are more than enough to meet rising future demand but that without new refineries, prices will remain high and markets volatile.

Source: Xinhua