Bush admin opposes Democratic push to sue OPEC

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) The Bush administration today said it would likely veto a Democratic-sponsored bill in the U.S. Congress that would allow the government to sue the OPEC oil producers group for price manipulation.

Committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives have approved versions of the ''No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007,'' or ''NOPEC.'' The bill would revoke the sovereign immunity OPEC members currently enjoy from US legal action and allow the Justice Department to sue them in US courts.

The White House said the bill could actually lead to higher crude oil and gasoline prices, and that foreign nations would likely retaliate by limiting US access to global oil supply.

The White House has been hesitant to chide the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries -- source of more than a third of the world's oil -- even as the average US gasoline price this week hit a fresh record of 3.22 dollars a gallon.

Refinery problems in the United States have drawn down gasoline stocks ahead of peak summer demand, pushing pump prices up to levels that, when adjusted for inflation, were last reached in the early 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

If the current ''NOPEC'' bill is sent to President George W Bush to be signed into law, ''his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill,'' the White House said.

''This bill has the potential to lead to oil supply disruptions and an escalation in the price of gasoline, natural gas, home heating oil, and other sources of energy,'' it said.

Prospects for the bill are uncertain after it was approved by the House Judiciary Committee last week. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a similar bill in April.

Rep John Conyers of Michigan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the bill's sponsor, said OPEC's production quota system is a ''conspiracy'' which ''has unfairly driven up the cost of imported crude oil to satisfy the greed of the oil exporters.'' Reuters NC DB2127