A week after failing to deflate record oil prices at a summit in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude producers and consumers will get another chance to tackle the problem at a meeting this week.
More than 3,000 delegates, including leading corporate and political figures, are to meet at the 19th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Madrid, which runs from June 30 to July 3 after an official opening reception on Sunday.
The gathering follows a surge in oil prices last Friday that took both New York light sweet crude and Brent North Sea crude to record levels beyond US$142 a barrel.
The President of the Organisation of Petroleum Export Countries, the head of the International Energy Agency and ministers from Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela, India, France and the Netherlands are expected to be present. They are joined by the bosses of major international oil groups ExxonMobil of the US, CNOOC of China, Britain’s BP and Shell, Rosneft of Russia and Total of France.
Most OPEC members remain firmly opposed to any increase in the production and blame speculators and the fall in the dollar for the remarkable run up in process, which have doubled in the last 12 months.
Jorge Segrelles, the head of the organising committee of the WPC says the meeting is intended to be “a forum for actively finding solutions.”
The main event, which will take place in Madrid’s Ifema conference centre, also faces competition from a rival meeting of environmentalists called to promote alternatives to crude oil as an energy source.
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