Despite the large share of exports they control, OPEC does not dictate world market prices nor dominate world supply and demand for this raw material. In fact, OPEC has agreed to increase production three times this year by a total of 3.2 million barrels. But these steps have had a negligible effect on world oil prices. At the end of September, leaders of the OPEC-member nations met in Venezuela for the organization's first summit conference since 1975. The final declaration of the gathering called on governments in Europe and the United States to take steps to reduce oil prices by cutting gasoline taxes and reducing the debt owed by these Third World countries to banks in the imperialist countries.
Gasoline taxes are extremely high in Europe.
At the summit, an Iraqi proposal for OPEC to endorse lifting the UN trade embargo imposed after the Persian Gulf War was blocked by the representatives from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. This announcement came shortly after the minister from Venezuela had stated that further attempts by Washington or the European Union to dip into strategic oil reserves would be met by cuts in OPEC production quotas. He stated that rising prices are due largely to scarce U.S. refining capacity, not because of an actual shortage of oil. In fact, U.S. refineries are running at virtually maximum capacity. Between 1982 and today, the U.S. oil companies failed to develop further refining facilities, while capacity utilization increased from 66 percent to 95 percent.