A major meeting of oil consuming and producing nations will be held June 22 in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah to address growing alarm over skyrocketing oil prices, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said Tuesday.
El-Badri told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone that the list of invitees would include executives from the private sector, including top executives from investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), as well as the major international oil companies.
He said invitations would be sent shortly to OPEC members, energy ministers from other oil producing countries, representatives of major oil consumers – including U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and the Energy Information Administration – as well as Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
The inclusion of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley may indicate that the Saudi-hosted meeting hopes to address the increasing flow of funds into the commodities market that some, including OPEC members, hold responsible for driving oil prices to record highs. The two banks are among the major players trading in oil futures and derivative contracts.
El-Badri said in an interview in London earlier Tuesday that this upcoming meeting would differ from a previous gathering held in April because it would focus specifically on high oil prices. He declined to give further details of the agenda.

(Rigzone)