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OPEC talks: Saudi Arabia to boost oil output James Kirkup Saudi Arabia has responded to appeals from Gordon Brown and other western leaders to bring down soaring oil prices by promising to extend a 200,000 barrel-a-day production increase until the end of the year. The move from Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, came after Mr Brown warned that the world was facing the most dangerous oil shock in modern economic history. The Saudis had already promised to increase production to 9.7 million barrels per day during July. But at an OPEC summit in Jeddah on Sunday, they agreed to extend that rise until the end of this year. The Prime Minister had earlier told OPEC, the oil cartel, that record oil prices could leave people in oil-consuming countries like Britain facing more years of falling living standards and economic instability. Mr Brown flew to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for an unprecedented meeting of OPEC and its customers, warning oil-producing nations that oil prices near $140 a barrel were having “a severe impact on standards of living”. Describing the recent surge in oil prices as the third and worst oil shock to hit the world economy in three decades, Mr Brown said: “This is the third oil shock of the last three decades, and I believe it is the worst oil shock because of the rise in prices and because of the volatility in the market. “Everybody knows it when they fill up at the petrol pumps and they know it when they pay their energy bills.” At the OPEC meeting, he proposed a “new deal” between oil producers and consumers, pledging more transparency in energy markets to help oil states plan new investment in their production capacity.
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