AOMORI, Japan - Energy chiefs from the world's industrial powers huddled for talks on soaring oil prices Sunday amid deep doubts that their actions can quell markets - or stave off damage to their economies - anytime soon. Ministers from the Group of Eight nations met in northern Japan in the morning to discuss energy security. They are to be joined later in the day by China, India and South Korea for talks on oil and gas markets, energy investment and climate change.Five top energy consumers - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and India - urged oil producers Saturday to boost output to meet growing demand, while pledging to develop clean energy alternatives and increase efficiency.
But U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman warned against hopes for a quick fix. “We have been three decades without really working on this issue, and it's only been the past three or four years that we have really focused on it," he told reporters Saturday. “This has been a long time coming, and it's not going to be something we're going to work our way out of in a matter of months or even a year or two."
Oil prices made their biggest single-day surge on Friday, soaring US$11 to US$138.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an 8 percent increase. That followed a US$5.50 increase the day before, taking oil futures more than 13 percent higher in just two days.
World oil production has stalled at about 85 million barrels a day since 2005, while global economic growth - boosted by spectacular surges in China and India - has pushed demand to unprecedented levels. Analysts have also cited the decline of the U.S. dollar, fears about the long-term supply of oil and aggressive speculation as factors in rising prices.