Oil got off to a strong start this week today following comments from Iran's oil minister which indicated we should not be expecting any production adjustments from OPEC any time soon. With OPEC's next meeting coming in September, the notion that we should not look for any production lifts over the summer has helped push prices up $1 to $65.76 a barrel.

With both gasoline and oil prices trading at very high levels, there has been some hopes that OPEC would try to step in and come to the rescue by lifting its output, but now that seems to be out of the question. In a related story, Saudi Arabia has reportedly informed its Asian and European customers that they should be expecting to receive the same quantity of oil this month as they did in June. Unfortunately for its customers, these levels only represent 90% of the contracted amounts.

With OPEC not stepping in to help ease high prices, we are going to be forced to rely on American refineries for the time being to step up to the plate. So far this year, U.S. refineries have not been able to keep production output high enough to keep up with rising demand, and as a result... record high gasoline prices. After a couple weeks of operating above 90% capacity, refineries once again fell back to under 90% as reported in last week's weekly inventory report from the Energy Information Administration.

All eyes are going to be watching this week's report in hopes that refiners are indeed able to cross back over 90%, but until we see them running at around 92 or 93%. prices are going to continue to remain high as we head deeper into the summer driving months.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor'sObserver.