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China, India praised for oil emergency preparedness

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-08 17:33

China and India agreed Saturday to take part in an International Energy Agency (IEA) mechanism which requires members to keep oil stockpile for dealing with oil price turbulence, a step praised by participating representatives at the energy ministers meeting between major oil consuming nations.

Energy officials from India, China, the United Sates, Japan and South Korea gathered earlier in the day in northeastern Japan's Aomori city to talk about a series of energy-related issues such as countermeasures against rocketing crude oil prices.

We welcome the tangible progress in China and India towards building their strategic oil stocks and strongly believe that the IEA can cooperate with each of the five countries in the field of emergency preparedness, said a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the one-day meeting.

As the oil market is global, stronger cooperation and coordination between the IEA members and non-members will enhance the collective effectiveness of our actions in time of emergency, the statement said.

China and India have been noncommittal to IEA regulations as they are not member nations.

We welcome China and India's voluntary participation in the Emergency Response Exercises with the IEA for concerted actions at the time of supply disruption, and this sends a strong signal that we are united as major oil consuming countries, the statement said.

Experienced nations will help China and India to establish oil stockpile system and introduce techniques about how to employ the stockpiled reserves in case of emergencies, sources said.

Participation of China and India will strongly enforce the competence of the world oil supply and price framework, officials from Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry said.

In the statement, energy ministers from the five countries, which consume about 50 percent of the world energy and about 67 percent of world oil, expressed their "serious concern over the current level of oil prices," saying the abnormally high prices are against the interest of both consuming and producing countries.

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

The ministers agreed to meet for their third meeting at appropriate time in South Korea.