By Xinhua,
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia : The energy summit staged in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to curb rocketing oil prices, is closed on Sunday.
Leaders and ministers from the 36 nations agreed that “the transparency and regulation of financial markets should be improved through measures to capture more data on index fund activity and to examine cross-exchange interactions in the crude market.”
The increasing oil prices have hit almost 135 U.S. dollars per barrel on Friday, which affects consumers and economies across the United States, Europe and much of the world. Many countries have experienced social unrest and economic turmoil.
As the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia has been under intense pressure from the U.S. and other oil consumers to increase its crude output to help rein in the oil price hike.
Saudi King Abdullah said at the opening ceremony of the Jeddah oil meeting that his country has increased output to 9.7 million barrels a day and it is willing to increase oil output if necessary.
The king also blamed speculation and taxes for high oil price and suggested to set up a program of one billion dollars similar to those that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) set up before to solve the oil crisis.
The kingdom called for Sunday’s unusual meeting in Jeddah between oil producing and consuming nations as a way to show that it was not deaf to international cries that high oil prices have caused social and economic turmoil.