AMMAN, 20 May 2006 — Oil ministers and senior officials from 16 Arab countries ended a four-day energy conference on Wednesday by urging “continued dialogue” between crude producing and consuming nations with a view to ensuring “stability” on the world market.
“The conference urges continuation of dialogue between producers of crude oil and gas and consumers,” according a final communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
“All crude and gas producers should work together to ensure the availability of objective factors conducive to certainty and stability on the world energy markets,” the statement said.
Among participants in the meeting were Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi and Qatar’s Energy Minister Abdullah ibn Hamad Al-Attiya.
Both men attributed the surging oil prices on the world market mainly to “external factors” including geopolitics and deficient downstream operations rather than a supply shortage.
The conferees also recommended “modernization” of Arab refineries and petrochemical plants as well as the construction of new ones that takes into account up-to-date technology.
They also called for the conservation of energy through the adoption of suitable legislations, spurring the role of the private sector in the spheres of gas distribution and the petrochemical industry and reinvigorating Pan-Arab cooperation in the conduction of feasibility studies and scientific research.
