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At Oil Conference, Saudis Offer Slight Rise in Production
Robert F. Worth and Jad Mouawad, New York Times
An emergency energy summit meeting convened hastily here on Sunday underscored how few options the world has to push oil prices down from their record levels, as producers and consumers repeatedly emphasized starkly divergent views on both the fundamental causes and possible remedies for the current energy crisis.

The one-day meeting in this coastal town on the Red Sea ended with the promise of a modest increase in Saudi oil production that is unlikely to stem the most-rapid run-up in oil prices ever. Beyond that, participants called for both more transparency and more regulation in energy markets, more investments in both production and refining capacity, and more cooperation between producers and consumers.

For Saudi Arabia, the meeting was a rare foray into the spotlight, and an opportunity to underscore that the oil-rich kingdom was aware of growing anger and frustration caused by surging prices in oil-importing countries.
(23 June 2008)

Comments ahead of the oil summit
Clarence Fernandez (ed), Reuters via Forbes
NIGERIA -- Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia
June 11, Lagos, oil above $134: "I guess it presents a welcome opportunity to review the pretty much unanimous conclusions of the Rome meeting as to the factors giving rise to the current unprecedented high price and volatility."

IRAQ -- Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani
June 17, London "I do not think increasing any amount in the international market will have a significant impact on the prices. It is up to the stock exchange and the regulations in the industrialised nations. It is not something OPEC can contribute to."

"We did not see any impact on the prices from the Saudi's previous increase."
(21 June 2008)
Nice approach to covering a complicated story - compiling quotes from the many actors involved. -BA

Former shepherd boy with power to pour oil on the world's troubles
Terry Macalister, The Guardian
Solving the incendiary problem of rising fuel costs rests on a humble minister
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There will be speeches tomorrow from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Gordon Brown at the energy summit in Jeddah that could decide the future of our petrol prices and heating bills. But the few words that matter will come from a former shepherd boy, Ali Al-Naimi.

Now 73, he is the minister of petroleum and mineral resources in the world's largest crude exporting country, and if anyone can influence global energy costs it is this quietly spoken man from humble background who rose to become pre-eminent in the oil sector.

... Described by those who deal with him as a "very smart, very professional operator", the Sunni Muslim is aware that the continued escalation will ultimately push western countries into other fuel sources at a time when global warming is signalling the potential end of carbon fuels.

He is also anxious that the Saudi regime, which needs its friends in the west for military and political protection, is not held entirely responsible for global energy woes which risk driving up inflation and stalling economic growth.
(21 June 2008)

PM tries to persuade Opec to invest 'oil shock' trillions in west's green energy revolution
Nicholas Watt, Guardian
Gordon Brown to plead with oil producers to channel profits into tidal and nuclear power in western countries
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Gordon Brown will today plead with Saudi Arabia and other oil producers to channel some of their $3trn profits from the worst "oil shock" in history into wind, tidal and nuclear power in Britain and other western countries.

On the eve of a visit to a special summit on the oil crisis in Jeddah, the prime minister set out a two-pronged plan that would help wean the west off cripplingly expensive oil, and allow Opec countries to benefit from new environmentally friendly energy sources being developed in the west.

Under his "New Deal" plan, which Brown set out in a Guardian interview as he prepared to fly to Jeddah this afternoon:

· Saudi Arabia and other oil producers, who are worried about the unpredictability of oil prices, which fell to $10 a barrel a decade ago, would be given the chance to take a major financial stake in the more stable market of renewable energy power in the west.
(21 June 2008)