UAE says high demand and tight refining raising oil price

DUBAI (Reuters) - High oil prices are caused by strong demand in China and India, speculation and a lack of refining capacity in industrialised nations, United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamli said.

The state news agency WAM quoted Hamli as saying on Saturday, when he left to attend a meeting of oil consumers and producers in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, that such a dialogue was key to stabilising oil markets and the world economy.

It said Hamli had agreed with British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, who visited the UAE this week, that high prices were caused by "strong demand for crude from China and India, speculation on the petroleum market and the situation that international financial markets are going through."

It said Hamli also believed that a lack of investment in refining capacity in industrialised nations was also affecting oil prices at a time when "global markets are suffering from a shortage of oil products not crude oil."

The UAE is one of the few members of the OPEC group of crude oil producers with spare capacity available to boost production.

(Reporting by Lin Noueihed, Editing by William Hardy)