Saudis want talks over oil crisis
Saudi Arabia plans to call a meeting of oil producing countries and consumers to discuss ways of dealing with soaring energy prices and work to prevent further unwarranted increases.
The kingdom will also work with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future", Information and Culture Minister Iyad Madani said.
He said that the kingdom has increased its output this month and has informed "all oil companies it deals with as well as countries that consume oil that (the kingdom) is ready to provide them with any additional oil they need."
"The Saudi Cabinet has instructed Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi to call for a meeting in the near future that will include representatives of oil-producing countries, consumers and companies that work in extracting, exporting and selling oil to look into the price hike, its causes and how to deal with it," he added.
The Saudi move is apparently meant to stabilize the oil market that has seen record-high oil prices and made a massive 8% gain on Friday to 138.54 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Saudis are concerned that sustained high oil prices will eventually slacken the world's appetite for oil, affecting them in the long run.
On Sunday, the world's leading economies and oil consumers discussed record-high oil prices and urged oil producers to boost output, which has stalled at about 85 million barrels a day since 2005. It also called for cooperation between buyers and producers.
Energy experts say most producers have little ability to expand output. The exception is Saudi Arabia, which is producing about 9.4 million barrels a day and has the ability to increase that by about 2 million barrels a day, but has not done so.
The current president of Opec, Chakib Khelil, has said that the cartel will make no new decision on production levels until its September 9 meeting in Vienna.
