An official of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday that the U.S. can’t increase oil production significantly enough to lower prices this year, and will have to depend on the OPEC cartel to fulfill its pledge to boost output. Keisuke Sadamori, IEA’s energy markets and security director, testified to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the U.S. can’t be expected to supply additional oil this year to the global market than it is already producing because of pipeline constraints preventing the delivery of oil from where it is produced to consumers. New pipelines in Texas, for example, aren’t expected to come online until 2019. “The U.S. is increasing production at a very fast pace, but in a sense, market participants have already incorporated that very fast production growth,” Sadamori said. “The pipeline takeaway capacity is preventing further growth in the short term. It is really hard to […]