OPEC: Organization not to blame for rise in gas and oil prices

New OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais said on August 17 that the influential producer group is not to blame for soaring inflation, pointing the finger instead at chronic underinvestment in the oil and gas industry, Report informs referring to CNBC.

"OPEC is not behind this price increase," Al Ghais told CNBC's Hadley Gamble.

"There are other factors beyond OPEC that are really behind the spike we have seen in gas [and] in oil. And again, I think in a nutshell, for me, it is underinvestment — chronic underinvestment," he added.

"This is the harsh reality that people have to wake up to and policymakers have to wake up to. Once that is realized I think then we can start to think of a solution here. And the solution is very clear. OPEC has a solution: invest, invest, invest," Al Ghais said.