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Little Hope Oil Summit will Cut Prices: Shell | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Crisis talks over record high oil prices are unlikely to quickly turn the tables on roaring markets, the chief of Royal Dutch Shell said on Sunday.

“What I’ve heard so far are basically all good ideas, but it will probably not change the price tomorrow morning,” Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer told Reuters.

“The mood of the meeting is all about investment, that is the way to go. For investment we need fiscal stability and security.”

Energy policy makers from the world’s top producers and consumers, plus chief executives from big oil firms, meet in Jeddah on Sunday to seek solutions to oil’s unrelenting rise, which has seen prices double over the past year.

Saudi Arabia has said in recent days it will boost production again in July to 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd), it highest rate in decades.

But delegates said the final communique from the emergency meeting of world oil powers was unlikely to deliver any hard measures, focusing instead on the need for greater transparency in oil markets, increased investment and low-carbon renewable energy sources.

The meeting also highlighted the stark divide between those who believe high oil prices are purely the result of soaring demand from consuming nations and slower growth in production from those who see speculators as the primary force behind the rally, a camp that includes most OPEC members.

On the causes of high prices van der Veer said: “There’s nobody to blame. It’s extremely complex, everybody has his own reading, but there is no one party you can point out.”