Saudi Arabia will call for a summit between oil producing countries and consumer states to discuss mounting energy prices, Information and Culture Minister Iyad Madani said Monday. The kingdom will also work with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future," the minister said following the weekly Cabinet meeting, the AP reported.
According to Madani, Saudi Arabia 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," Madani conveyed.
The Saudi move came three days after the biggest single-day price hike ever, when oil surged more than $11 to surpass $139 per barrel. Retail gas prices rose further above $4 Monday in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer.
The kingdom will work to ensure there will be no "unwarranted and unnatural oil price hikes that could affect international economies, especially those of developing countries," said Madani. "There is no justification for the current rise in prices," he said.
July futures for light, sweet crude fell $4.19 to settle at $134.35 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In other New York trading Monday, July gasoline futures fell 15.4 cents to settle at $3.394 a gallon, and July heating oil futures fell 9.7 cents to settle at $3.877 a gallon.
