Oxygen abundances in the spiral galaxies expected to be richest in oxygen are estimated .
The new abundance determinations are based on the recently discovered ff – relation between auroral and nebular oxygen line fluxes in high-metallicity H ii regions .
We find that the maximum gas-phase oxygen abundance in the central regions of spiral galaxies is 12+log ( O/H ) \sim 8.75 .
This value is significantly lower ( by a factor \ga 5 ) than the previously accepted value .
The central oxygen abundance in the Milky Way is similar to that in other large spirals .