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Experts: unfair to blame China on oil price
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-14 09:13 Experts attending the
China-Montreux Energy Roundtable 2005 said in Beijing on Sunday that there are a
dozen of factors contributing to the current surging oil price and it is unfair
to blame China solely.
Professor Subroto, Chairman of the Foundation of
Indonesian Institute for Energy Economics, said that different from the oil
crisis occurred in last century that were caused by disruption of supply, the
current soaring oil price are caused by demand increase with increasing economic
activity worldwide.
Moreover, the small excess capacity of major oil
producers and political factors are also important factors contributing to the
current soaring oil price, he said.
However, Subroto believed that the
oil price will somewhat fall with more investment in the industry and more
supply.
But it could be definitely say that the era of 25 US dollars per
barrel will not come back, he said.
Ali Al-Muhareb, Vice President,
Corporate Planning of Saudi Aramco, said that there is no physical shortage of
oil even when the oil price has been hovering at some 60 US dollars per
barrel.
The current supply shortage was caused by lack of investment in
refining industry and infrastructures such as distribution and transportation
when the oil price was relatively low a few years ago, he said.
Richard
Mckean, President and Founder of Montreux Energy said the expectation of the
financial market for the supply and demand tension of the oil market is another
reason attributing to the current high price.
It is not right to say that
one single reason leading to the current high oil price as a dozen of factors
finally attributed to the current situation, said William C. Ramsay, Deputy
Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.
However, as the
cost for producing a barrel of oil is only 11 to 12 US dollars, it is still
unreasonable to see the price rise to a high level of about 60 US dollars per
barrel, he said.
Since the international oil price began to surge in
2004, China's rising demand has been blamed as the major factor for lifting the
price.
It is unfair to blame China, a developing country that is experiencing its
economic development and seeing its normal growth of energy demand, said
Subroto.
What the world should also see is that China is trying its best
to produce more oil and natural gas to reduce its dependency on import, to
improve its energy consumption structure by using more renewable and new
energies and to enhance its energy efficiency, he said.
As a world-famous
high-level international energy forum, Montreux Energy Roundable saw it first
forum held in China in 2004.
Nearly 200 professionals in the energy
circle from both home and overseas attended the China-Montreux Energy Roundtable
2005 to discuss topics on energy sustainability: efficiency and reliability.
(Source: Xinhua)
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