G7 to Call on OPEC to Pump More OilNEW YORK (Reuters) - The Group of Seven top economic powers are set this weekend to call on oil-producing nations to lower sky-high energy prices by pumping more crude.
G7 finance officials meeting in New York are worried record oil prices -- which earlier this month topped $40 a barrel for the first time -- will dent the rosiest economic outlook in years by hitting business and consumers and stoking inflation. "The (G7) statement will invite OPEC countries to increase their oil production and will contain an appreciation of Saudi Arabia's position on increasing its production," a G7 source told Reuters Saturday. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, who met earlier in Amsterdam, deferred any decision on upping output to a meeting in Beirut on June 3 but said the cartel wanted to cut fuel costs to support the world economy. Saudi Arabia is pushing for an OPEC output hike of up to 2.5 million barrels a day and has pledged to pump more oil itself in any event. "What I am thinking is that OPEC increase between 2.3-2.5 million barrels a day and this will give us a kind of credibility," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told Sunday's edition of the Arabic-language daily al-Hayat. G7, meantime, wants OPEC to honor a long-term commitment to stabilize oil prices between $22 and $28 per barrel. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow Friday welcomed Saudi Arabia's plan and said he would back a G7 call for an OPEC-wide pledge. Britain's Gordon Brown, Germany's Hans Eichel and France's Nicolas Sarkozy had earlier penned a joint statement to that effect too. Canada's Ralph Goodale, who opted out of the G7 meeting because of election commitments at home, also gave support. He called Snow and Brown, and the three agreed the G7 should be "pressing for appropriate increases in global (oil) production to help moderate the global economy," a spokesman said Saturday. Japan echoed the concern. Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said oil was not debated at Saturday's dinner but would be dealt with at Sunday's gathering: "It (the high oil price) is something that needs to be watched closely." The precise wording of any statement is still to be decided, several officials said. The Group is conscious of not making specific demands or setting ultimatums, they said. "The G7 don't give orders, they just give indications. Usually these indications are followed," Italy's Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti told reporters Saturday. WALDORF ACCORD? Finance ministers from five of the G7 -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada -- are meeting Saturday and Sunday at the Waldorf-Astoria, a landmark art deco hotel on New York's fabled Park Avenue. The ministers will discuss the outlook for global growth, structural economic reforms, stalled trade talks, Iraqi debt and a review of Bretton Woods institutions -- preparing the economic agenda for a June 8-10 summit on Sea Island, Georgia. Continued... |
