Business Notes OPEC

Just in time to hit motorists at the start of the peak driving season, gasoline prices have risen about 25% in the past two months, to a U.S. average of $1.25 per gal. The pain at the pump is largely the result of higher crude- oil prices, and no relief is in sight. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose squabbling has sometimes led to price wars, were relatively cooperative with one another when they met last week in Vienna. Because of strong worldwide demand for OPEC's crude, the group decided that it could boost its self-imposed production quota by 1 million bbl. a day, to 19.5 million, without suffering any serious decline in oil's market price of about $18 per bbl. Moreover, OPEC decided to review the new quotas in September, when the oil ministers meet again in Paris. They may be able to raise their output even more.

But last week the chronic rifts among OPEC's 13 members remained just below the surface. Kuwait, whose Energy Minister signed the accord reluctantly, pointedly refused to abide by the quota imposed by its fellow members.