The gasoline consumption prices averaging three dollars per gallon (4.546 liters equivalent to one gallon) in the American market is relatively cheap when compared with prices globally, a oil and gas company official said Sunday.

The chairman of ConocoPhillips Co., James J. Mulva told a NBC program that in parts of Europe and elsewhere in the West, gasoline prices are more like five dollars per gallon to seven dollars per gallon.

He said "this is a global business, and it is not only that we need to add to supply, but we need to reduce demand." "In the United States alone, we have about two percent of world oil reserves, five percent of the population and yet we use about 25 percent of the world's consumption of oil," Mulva argued.

Though many U.S. consumers blame high pump prices on oil companies for more profits, the oil company chiefs blame global competition for supplies.

The chairman of Chevron Corp., David J. O'Reilly, who was attending the same program of NBC, said "profits are in the midrange" and not as high as they could be, but that if prices were to decrease, the demand for oil and gas would increase and supplies could become short.

"The issue here is not the price issue. The solution here is how to increase supply," he said.

Source: Xinhua