Energy ministers split on subsidies as oil surges

Energy officials from the top five consumer nations urged producers to step up investment, a day after crude’s biggest surge ever, but they offered no new ideas on how to deal with record prices and remained divided on fuel subsidies. Japan, United States, China, India and South Korea together guzzle nearly half the world’s oil. They had agreed on the need for greater transparency in energy markets and more investment by consumers and producers both, while stopping short of calling on OPEC to pump more crude oil. U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman pointed part of the blame at cheap fuel in Asia, where fast-growing economies and low prices have helped drive oil’s explosive six-year rally. China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, has raised pump rates only once since mid-2006, increasing them by 10% in November, and analysts see few signs of action soon with policymakers focused on taming inflation. (June 7, 2008)