OPEC Secretary General: IEA should be 'very careful' about discouraging oil investments

OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Thursday that International Energy Agency (IEA) should be 'very careful' about discouraging oil investments, which is important for global economic growth.Al Ghais's statements came in response to fresh criticism from IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol to OPEC+, indicating that finger-pointing and misrepresenting the actions of OPEC and OPEC+ was "counterproductive."The OPEC Secretary General indicated that repeated calls to stop investing in the oil sector may lead to future volatility in the oil market.The IEA Executive Director criticized OPEC+'s surprising decision to cut oil output by 1.66 million barrels per day from May until the end of 2023.In a Bloomberg TV interview on Wednesday, Birol said that OPEC should be "very careful" with its production policy. He added that higher crude prices and upward inflationary pressures would result in a weaker global economy