When British protesters angered by the country’s high fuel prices threatened to blockade oil refineries earlier this month, Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, pointed the finger in a familiar direction: the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The only way to bring down prices, he declared, was by putting pressure on the oil cartel to step up its production.

Opec promptly called his bluff, offering proposing to make available another 2m barrels of oil a day – if consumers wanted it. “We’re offering everything in our pocket and this is my message to Gordon Brown: if he would like to have it, I would be happy to sell it to him,” said Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd Al-Sabah, Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Opec’s president. , slyly offered.Opec’s offer to pump at full tilt The announcement had a limited effect on prices. As Mr Sheikh Al-Sabah well knew, even if Opec were suddenly able to double its output of crude, it would not be going anywhere. The reason: There simply would not be enough capacity to refine the oil into a usable form.