During the G7 Summit in Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly told President Joe Biden that the president of the United Arab Emirates told Macron that both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are virtually at their capacities to produce oil, dimming hopes for an increase in the international supply to lower fuel prices, Reuters reports.

Biden is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia to implore them to increase production to ease the global fuel crises that have seen retail prices of gasoline shoot up even though the price of a barrel of crude oil was at $110 per barrel.  In 2008, when gas was at a similar price, a gallon of gasoline in the United State sold for just $3.08; currently, gas prices hover around $5.00 per gallon.

“I had a call with MbZ (Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the UAE),” Macron reportedly told Biden.  “He told me two things. I’m at a maximum, maximum (production capacity). This is what he claims.  And then he said (the) Saudis can increase by 150 (thousands barrels per day). Maybe a little bit more, but they don’t have huge capacities before six months’ time.”

While pro-pollution advocates believe American gas prices can be lowered simply by pumping more crude oil from the ground, which they claim can be done immediately at oil fields on US public lands, the process for producing gasoline is a complicated one involving prospecting wells, increasing refining capacity and various other logistical issues.  With about 10% of public land leases sitting unused in oil companies’ possession, it would take months or years to get new wells producing.  Plus, the United States is experiencing a record cutback in oil refining capabilities, as oil companies take refineries off-line, further limiting supplies and driving up their profits.