Saudi oil-price meet to be at head-of-state level: OPEC chief
Friday, 13 June 2008
LONDON, June 12 (AFP): A meeting due June 22 in Saudi Arabia for the world's biggest oil producers and consumers to discuss record-high crude prices will be at head-of-state level, OPEC chief Abdullah al-Badri said Wednesday.
"The meeting in Jeddah will be the head of states and they will discuss why we have high energy prices," Badri told AFP on the sidelines of an energy conference in London.
OPEC Secretary General Badri would not be drawn on which heads of state would attend the one-day gathering announced by Saudi Arabia Tuesday, which was less than a week after the price of crude struck a record high 139.12 dollars a barrel.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) maintains that the oil market is well supplied and that current prices do not reflect market fundamentals of supply and demand.
Saudi Arabia, a close Western ally, has come under huge US pressure to boost output to help end volatility in world markets that saw benchmark crude prices in New York jump close to 140 dollars a barrel last Friday.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, leapt 10.75 dollars a barrel Friday to 139.12 - - its biggest one-day jump ever.
Saudi Arabia, the leading member in OPEC, had first proposed the meeting of countries and oil company bosses Monday.
The United States, the world's biggest consumer of energy, has said it plans to attend and the guest list is also to include leading investment bankers and financiers, who are held responsible by OPEC for driving up the price of oil through speculation.
European countries, the European Commission, the International Energy Agency-the energy watchdog for industrialised countries-and the heads of investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have also been invited.
Another report from Singapore adds: World oil prices fell in volatile Asian trade Thursday after rising earlier following a US government report that showed American crude reserves dipped for the fourth week in a row.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, was 98 cents lower at 135.40 dollars a barrel after trading as high as 136.99 in the morning.
The contract jumped 5.07 dollars to close at 136.38 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
"The meeting in Jeddah will be the head of states and they will discuss why we have high energy prices," Badri told AFP on the sidelines of an energy conference in London.
OPEC Secretary General Badri would not be drawn on which heads of state would attend the one-day gathering announced by Saudi Arabia Tuesday, which was less than a week after the price of crude struck a record high 139.12 dollars a barrel.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) maintains that the oil market is well supplied and that current prices do not reflect market fundamentals of supply and demand.
Saudi Arabia, a close Western ally, has come under huge US pressure to boost output to help end volatility in world markets that saw benchmark crude prices in New York jump close to 140 dollars a barrel last Friday.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, leapt 10.75 dollars a barrel Friday to 139.12 - - its biggest one-day jump ever.
Saudi Arabia, the leading member in OPEC, had first proposed the meeting of countries and oil company bosses Monday.
The United States, the world's biggest consumer of energy, has said it plans to attend and the guest list is also to include leading investment bankers and financiers, who are held responsible by OPEC for driving up the price of oil through speculation.
European countries, the European Commission, the International Energy Agency-the energy watchdog for industrialised countries-and the heads of investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have also been invited.
Another report from Singapore adds: World oil prices fell in volatile Asian trade Thursday after rising earlier following a US government report that showed American crude reserves dipped for the fourth week in a row.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, was 98 cents lower at 135.40 dollars a barrel after trading as high as 136.99 in the morning.
The contract jumped 5.07 dollars to close at 136.38 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.