Efforts by some of the world’s biggest oil buyers to co-ordinate the possible release of emergency reserves and an intervention by Saudi Arabia sent crude prices tumbling yesterday, raising the prospect of relief for Europe’s flagging economy and American motorists facing $4-a-gallon pump prices.
As Eric Besson, France’s energy minister, confirmed his country was in talks with the US, UK and Japan to release billions of barrels of oil on to the market, Saudi Arabia’s influential oil minister said Riyadh would do all it could to bring prices down. Writing in today’s Financial Times, Ali Naimi said: “The bottom line is that Saudi Arabia would like to see a lower price. It would like to see a fair and reasonable price that will not hurt the global economic recovery.”
Soaring energy prices, driven in part by tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme, are threatening a fragile US recovery and the re-election prospects of Barack Obama, US president.