World News Article | Reuters.co.uk
LONDON (Reuters) - The West's big oil consumers, producers from the Middle East and Africa and industry bosses will meet in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss how to satisfy the world's thirst for oil and keep energy supplies secure.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, British and French finance ministers and several OPEC ministers are among those taking part. Oil prices are up a third this year and the West is increasingly reliant on the volatile Middle East for its oil.
"They are meeting at a time when oil prices and energy security are at the top of the international agenda," said Arne Walther, secretary general of the International Energy Forum (IEF) whose Riyadh headquarters opens on Saturday.
U.S. crude oil hit a record $70.85 a barrel on August 30. The price has since slipped but on average this year oil has cost 36 percent more than last year. Spiralling energy costs have slowed economic growth and piled on inflationary pressure.
Supplying the energy for future economic growth is going to require massive investment. Global supply needs to rise to meet demand of around 115 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2030 from around 82 million bpd last year, according to the International Energy Agency, adviser to 26 industrialised nations.
The bulk of that increase in output will come from North African and Middle Eastern producers, which sit on most of the world's untapped oil reserves. But even some of the richer countries in those regions will struggle to finance such expansion themselves, and they often restrict foreign investment.
Chancellor Gordon Brown and his French counterpart Thierry Breton proposed visiting OPEC nations nearly two months ago on behalf of the G7 rich nations to push for more transparency in oil markets and increased production spending.
Brown has urged oil producers to raise output to bring down high prices, even though producers and consumers have mostly blamed prices this year on a lack of refinery capacity.
Norway's energy minister and top executives from France's Total, U.S. firms ConocoPhillips and Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Japan's Nippon Oil Corp and BP will also be in Riyadh this weekend, a Saudi statement said.
WILL NEW DATABASE HELP?
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, will host the meeting to mark the inauguration of the International Energy Forum's new secretariat headquarters.
The Saudi king will launch a new database that the IEF hopes will increase transparency in notoriously opaque oil markets. The Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) database will provide oil and gas output, demand and stock levels from over 90 countries.
"We hope that having timely and accurate data will contribute to reducing market volatility and provide a better basis for consuming and producing nations to take policy decisions," Walther said.
Analysts are sceptical that countries such as China will provide accurate demand data, and that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers will supply output data that is more accurate or timely than information already available.
"If they manage to get hold of accurate data on OPEC production and consumption in China and India, then it would be a very good thing," said Leo Drollas, chief economist at London's Centre for Global Energy Studies.
The rapid growth of Chinese demand last year helped fuel the long bull run on crude markets. More accurate data on Chinese demand would have allowed a quicker reaction from producers, analysts say.
China's growing influence on the global energy market is rapidly changing energy geopolitics and throwing up a whole new set of energy security issues for western consuming nations.
The IEF was set up as an informal gathering of ministers from consumer and producing countries to discuss their often antagonistic interests. The IEF first met in Paris in 1991.
The next meeting is due to take place in Doha in April.
LONDON (Reuters) - The West's big oil consumers, producers from the Middle East and Africa and industry bosses will meet in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss how to satisfy the world's thirst for oil and keep energy supplies secure.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, British and French finance ministers and several OPEC ministers are among those taking part. Oil prices are up a third this year and the West is increasingly reliant on the volatile Middle East for its oil.
"They are meeting at a time when oil prices and energy security are at the top of the international agenda," said Arne Walther, secretary general of the International Energy Forum (IEF) whose Riyadh headquarters opens on Saturday.
U.S. crude oil hit a record $70.85 a barrel on August 30. The price has since slipped but on average this year oil has cost 36 percent more than last year. Spiralling energy costs have slowed economic growth and piled on inflationary pressure.
Supplying the energy for future economic growth is going to require massive investment. Global supply needs to rise to meet demand of around 115 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2030 from around 82 million bpd last year, according to the International Energy Agency, adviser to 26 industrialised nations.
The bulk of that increase in output will come from North African and Middle Eastern producers, which sit on most of the world's untapped oil reserves. But even some of the richer countries in those regions will struggle to finance such expansion themselves, and they often restrict foreign investment.
Chancellor Gordon Brown and his French counterpart Thierry Breton proposed visiting OPEC nations nearly two months ago on behalf of the G7 rich nations to push for more transparency in oil markets and increased production spending.
Brown has urged oil producers to raise output to bring down high prices, even though producers and consumers have mostly blamed prices this year on a lack of refinery capacity.
Norway's energy minister and top executives from France's Total, U.S. firms ConocoPhillips and Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Japan's Nippon Oil Corp and BP will also be in Riyadh this weekend, a Saudi statement said.
WILL NEW DATABASE HELP?
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, will host the meeting to mark the inauguration of the International Energy Forum's new secretariat headquarters.
The Saudi king will launch a new database that the IEF hopes will increase transparency in notoriously opaque oil markets. The Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) database will provide oil and gas output, demand and stock levels from over 90 countries.
"We hope that having timely and accurate data will contribute to reducing market volatility and provide a better basis for consuming and producing nations to take policy decisions," Walther said.
Analysts are sceptical that countries such as China will provide accurate demand data, and that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers will supply output data that is more accurate or timely than information already available.
"If they manage to get hold of accurate data on OPEC production and consumption in China and India, then it would be a very good thing," said Leo Drollas, chief economist at London's Centre for Global Energy Studies.
The rapid growth of Chinese demand last year helped fuel the long bull run on crude markets. More accurate data on Chinese demand would have allowed a quicker reaction from producers, analysts say.
China's growing influence on the global energy market is rapidly changing energy geopolitics and throwing up a whole new set of energy security issues for western consuming nations.
The IEF was set up as an informal gathering of ministers from consumer and producing countries to discuss their often antagonistic interests. The IEF first met in Paris in 1991.
The next meeting is due to take place in Doha in April.
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