June 22, 2008 4:53PM

Impressions? Sorry I don’t do them

By Ashley Webster

In the end the Jeddah energy meeting came down to just over three hours of discussion. It feels like a lot of hullabaloo for so little actual work. Representatives from 38 countries, the major oil companies and the majority of members belonging to OPEC descended on the Red Sea town amid cries for crude oil relief.
I don’t think anyone expected a major revelation to emerge on how to stabalize the oil markets and reduce prices but I couldn’t help getting the impression that much of this exercise was clearly an effort by Saudi Arabia to appear sympathetic and proactive about the impact of high oil. Sure, we heard the Saudi’s say they will up production by another 200,000 barrels a day in July. Of course we heard about the need for long term investment from producers to ensure greater future capacity. We even had British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking OPEC to invest in wind power but in the end we got what we expected… more talk.
The Saudi’s maintain that the high oil prices are the result of market speculators who have poured cash into oil futures as a hedge against the weak dollar. U S Energy Secretary Sam Bodman says the speculators aren’t to blame, it’s a simple case of supply failing to keep up with demand. Then of course you have government subsidies, militant attacks in Nigeria, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the plight of the lesser spotted hedgehog and so on.
I think the truth is we can blame a little bit of everything and if nothing else this three hour meeting may have confirmed that a quick fix is just not possible at least not in three hours.