Opec said yesterday that it was planning to pour $150 billion (£72.4 billion) over the next five years into more than 120 projects intended to boost oil output.

According to Mohamed al-Hamli, the oil cartel’s president, who is also the Oil Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Opec’s third-largest-producing country, the programme will boost the cartel’s overall production capacity by more than five million barrels a day.

“Large and complex refineries are being planned or under construction, both domestically and abroad,” he said in Singapore.

The programme would help to satisfy “growing demand for uninterrupted secure oil supplies, as well as offering an adequate level of spare capacity for the benefit of the world at large. Opec member countries are also investing heavily in refining and delivery infrastructure, such as pipe-lines, storage facilities and terminals,” he said.

The 13 member states of Opec, which supply about 40 per cent of global crude oil production of 85 million barrels per day, are expected to discuss raising output at their next policy meeting in Abu Dhabi on December 5. Production levels for the first quarter of 2008 will be reviewed at the meeting.

Some members, including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, Opec’s largest producer, which controls about a quarter of the world’s proven oil reserves, are thought to be willing to consider an increase. Others, such as Venezuela, are less keen to bow to pressure from big consumer countries, including the United States.

Since August, crude prices have surged more than 40 per cent from below $70 a barrel to close to $100. Yesterday oil prices have slipped nearly 4 per cent.

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