  We investigate relationships between observed auroral and nebular oxygen line
fluxes in spectra of HII regions. We find a relation that is
metallicity-dependent at low metallicities, but becomes independent of
metallicity (within the uncertainties of the available data) above 12+logO/H ~
8.25, i.e. there is one-to-one correspondance (the ff - relation) between
auroral and nebular oxygen line fluxes in spectra of high-metallicity HII
regions. The ff - relation allows one to estimate the flux in the auroral line
from strong oxygen line measurements. This solves the problem of the electron
temperature (and, consequently, abundance) determination in high-metallicity
HII regions. The ff - relation confirms the basic idea of the empirical method,
proposed by Pagel et al. (1979) a qurter of a century ago, that the oxygen
abundance in HII region can be estimated from the strong oxygen lines
measurements only.
