Oil meeting could devolve into finger pointing

With few able to agree how to tackle the numerous factors behind oil prices at a once-unthinkable $130 a barrel, the meeting in the Saudi port city of Jiddah may turn to finger-pointing. Consumer nations will urge more output from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers, while producers will call on gas-guzzlers and speculators to ease off and do their part.

"I don't see anything emanating from this meeting that's going to have an appreciable impact on oil prices come Sunday night or Monday morning," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill.

Still, he said the conference, which opens Sunday, was not a bad idea.

"Anything that the Saudis could do to conjure up an image of increased supply flow from the Mideast is a good idea," Ritterbusch said.

The kingdom's message to the conference will be that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will do what it can to stabilize oil prices and that the kingdom is ready to meet demand--but also that it and other producers are not to blame for high prices. Reducing prices, it has said repeatedly over recent months, requires a collective effort, including from consumers.

During the gathering, Saudi Arabia likely will officially announce an increase in its oil output by 200,000 barrels a day, bringing its total production to 9.7 million barrels a day. It will also likely sign an agreement with French energy giant Total SA for a new refinery in the eastern city of Jubeil that can process 400,000 barrels of crude a day and will come online in 2012.

But markets have been unimpressed. Word of the planned Saudi production hike, which follows another 300,000 barrel per day increase last month, has done nothing to put a dent in prices. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil producer.

Thirty-five countries, 25 oil companies and seven organizations will attend the weekend meeting, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in a statement Thursday. The delegates include OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Noe Van Hulst from the International Energy Agency, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Al-Naimi said he hoped the gathering will have "positive results that will contribute to stabilizing the international oil markets."