Top Oil Users Beg for Rise in Output

AOMORI, Japan – Leading energy-consuming nations urged oil producers Saturday to boost their output to counter soaring prices threatening the world economy, while they pledged to develop clean- energy technologies and improve efficiency.

The five nations – the United States, China, Japan, India and South Korea – differed, however, on how urgently oil subsidies should be phased out, with Washington backing bold movement while India and China warned of political and economic instability.

Cabinet ministers from the five countries, which account for more than half the world’s consumption of energy, agreed that the sharp surge in oil prices was a menace to the world economy and that more petroleum should be produced to meet rising demand.

“It’s not good for producing nations to see the U.S. struggling economically. They depend on us to be a significant engine in world economic activity,” U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

The current president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Chakib Khelil, has said the cartel will make no new decision on production levels until its Sept. 9 meeting in Vienna.

Oil prices made their biggest single-day surge Friday, soaring $11 to $138.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an 8 percent increase.

Originally published by Associated Press.

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