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Official attributes surging oil price to speculation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-07 15:29

The fluctuation of crude oil prices is closely related to the global financial market and the surge of oil prices should not only be ascribed to rising energy demands of fast developing countries, a Chinese energy official said Saturday.

Oil has become a commodity of the largest trade volume in the world. A huge amount of oil trade is conducted in the financial market and the oil prices are no longer up to the traditional marginal utility, but have become a financial concept under the influence of a lot of factors, said Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Zhang dismissed the idea that rising demands in industrializing countries such as China and India should be blamed for the surge of oil prices.

"This is an incomprehensive idea since decisive factors for oil prices have run further beyond the concept of supply and demand," Zhang said in his speech at the energy ministers meeting between India, China, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Zhang noted that from 2003 to 2006, world oil consumption posed annual increases of 1.9 percent, 3.8 percent, 1.2 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. "The rates were all in normal range."

He suggested that his counterparts put the rising oil prices into the context of global financial market, which could be affected by a wide range of factors such as the change of exchange rates, geopolitics, political instabilities and natural disasters.

"All these may turn to be reasons for speculation, ...and from this way of thinking, an answer to the current record high oil price could be found," Zhang said.

He called on his counterparts to cherish the opportunity to discuss the obvious problem in the global oil market and refrain from concentrating on their own interests.

The five-party energy ministers meeting, initiated by China, was the second of its kind following the first one in Beijing in December 2006.

China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and India take up 47 percent of world oil consumption.

The meeting was one day prior to the Group of Eight Energy Ministers Meeting and the G8 plus China, South Korea and Japan energy ministers meeting.