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Saturday, Jun 21, 2008
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Chidambaram will also attend OPEC meet

Sujay Mehdudia

P. Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: With crude prices once again showing volatility and climbing to $133 a barrel, Sunday’s meeting of Energy Ministers in Jeddah has assumed great significance.

In a surprise development, India will be represented by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, besides Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.

The decision to send Mr. Chidambaram to the meeting, called by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to discuss measures to stabilise the international oil market, is understood to have been taken at the highest level in view of the rising inflationary trends and the volatility in oil market threatening to derail economic growth.

All eyes are on this high-level meeting between producers and consumer-nations.

Saudi Arabia has already announced that it will step up its daily oil output by 2,00,000 barrels to help cool record-high crude futures. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is believed to be the only producer with spare output capacity. However, there are fears that production increases may still not keep up with future demand.

Informed sources said Mr. Chidambaram would interact with leading OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) members and seek their intervention in cooling crude prices.

“The idea is to get a proper feedback from the oil producers in order to chart a strategy for dealing with a situation that could emerge in future. India is a petroleum import-dependent nation and any volatility in the crude oil market would only make things difficult in an election year,” a senior official said.

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