JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday announced a $1 billion energy initiative for poor countries and Saudi Arabia’s decision to allocate $500 million in soft loans to help developing countries carry out energy and other projects.

Opening a conference of oil producers and consumers at the Jeddah Hilton, King Abdullah blamed speculators, high fuel taxes and increased consumption by developing economies for soaring oil prices.

King Abdullah also announced that Saudi Arabia had increased its daily production from nine million to 9.7 million barrels in the past few months. “We are ready to meet additional energy requirements of world markets in the future,” he added.

He urged developed nations and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to join the Kingdom in an effort to soften the effects of soaring prices on the world’s poor.

Delegates from 36 countries and executives of 25 oil companies attended the meeting.

“The Kingdom’s oil policy since the establishment of OPEC has been based on adopting a fair price for petroleum in a manner that does not harm either producers or consumers,” the king said. “We have been keen on preserving the interests of the entire world as we are keen on preserving our national interests, and because of that policy we have faced many attacks, and we have endured some harm because of that,” he told the delegates.

Dispel rumors

“Although OPEC has no role in determining the price of oil, we have seen people pointing the finger to blame the organization alone,” the king said and urged the summit’s delegates to uncover the truth and dispel rumors to get the real and full reasons for the rising prices.

“There are several factors behind the quick and unjustified increase in oil prices recently. They include the frivolity in the market of speculators for selfish interests, the rise in consumption in a number of developing economies and increasing taxes on petroleum in a number of consuming countries,” the king said.

“Your mission is to rule out biased rumors and to find the real causes for the increase in prices and how to deal with that development clearly and transparently, and to disclose the outcome to all the nations of the world, so as not to treat the innocent as wrongdoers and only then will the truth survive.”

Displaying the leadership of a compassionate nation, King Abdullah put forth a five-step plan to protect poor people across the world from the potential harm of soaring energy and commodity prices.

“I call for launching an ‘Energy for the Poor’ initiative. Its aim will be to enable the developing countries to confront the increasing costs of energy, and I call on the World Bank to organize a meeting as soon as possible for donor countries and regional and international financial institutions to discuss and activate this initiative.”

He also called on OPEC’s Ministerial Council to commit $1 billion to a parallel initiative and he pledged Saudi Arabia’s unflagging support for both efforts.

He also took immediate action on behalf of the Kingdom. “I announce the allocation of $500 million in soft loans through the Saudi Fund for Development in order to finance energy and development projects in poor countries,” the Saudi leader said.

King Abdullah asked the delegates to form a working group under the umbrella of the International Energy Forum’s General Secretariat to implement conference recommendations and monitor developments in the oil market. The Kingdom was ready to support the group with any needed materials and manpower so that it could successfully carry out its mission, he added.

The king cautioned delegates and their competing constituencies that putting individual agendas in front of global well-being could lead to disaster. “In this critical hour, the international community must rise to the level of responsibility,” said King Abdullah. “Cooperation must be the cornerstone of any effort, and we all must have a comprehensive, profound and humanitarian vision in our perspective of the present and future. Such a vision must be liberated from selfishness and transcend to fraternity and solidarity. This is the secret of success,” the king concluded.