Madrid: The World Petroleum Congress has opened in Madrid and oil prices and maintaining a reliable supply of oil will dominate most discussions.
It's an event opened by King Juan Carlos of Spain, however one does not expect clear policies to emerge.
The World Petroleum Congress agenda centers on sustainable energy - an issue the European Union has embraced with its commitment to a twenty per cent cut in its carbon emissions by 2020.
“Over the last three years, prices have more than tripled. We need to develop a new toolbox of policies to rise to today's challenge. We already have a number of effective options available to us. I would mention energy efficiency and demand management, more efficient technologies and more penetration of these technologies into the market,” says EU Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs.
Meanwhile, oil industry bosses dismissed the idea that speculators are driving the current high crude prices. It’s simply relentless demand growth, they say, and supply has failed to keep up.
“Increased investment is not just an optional extra. It's vital. According to the International Energy Agency, the extraordinary figure of more than twenty-two trillion dollars will be needed between now and twenty-thirty in order to meet future energy demand,” says CEO, BP, Tony Hayward.
Big oil producing countries remind us that improving access to energy is a key goal in eliminating global poverty.
Producers and consumers have a common interest in reliable supplies and stable prices. Though thes petroleum congress is a talking-shop, but a necessary one when what the world is looking for is a common resolve.
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