World Officials Urge Energy Curbs
Finance officials from the world's leading industrial powers expressed concern Friday about zooming oil prices and vowed to take action to prevent the global economy from getting knocked off course.
The pledge by finance ministers and central bank presidents from the Group of Seven countries comes on the same day that oil prices in the United States shot up to a new record high of $75.17 a barrel.
Even though the world economy is now in good shape, "risks remain from oil market developments, global imbalances and growing protectionism," the finance officials said in a joint statement released after a closed-door meeting. The United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada make up the group.
Policymakers encouraged countries to examine ways to curb the world's appetite for energy and boost exploration and production.
Crude prices, which are more than 40 percent higher than a year ago, have risen 8.4 percent from Thursday's closing price — the biggest one-week jump since the week ended June 17, 2005, when crude futures rose 9 percent.
Pumps ran dry at scattered gas stations as fuel terminals and stations struggled to adapt to ethanol in fuel mixes, causing some customers to hark back to widespread gasoline shortages of the past.
Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said she knew of eight stations in the Philadelphia region that were out of fuel on Thursday. Four of the 40 stations Liberty supplies in the Philadelphia region ran out of fuel in the last two days as its tanker trucks made futile trips from terminal to terminal, Hummel said.
Analysts say oil prices are likely to climb even higher in the weeks ahead as worries grow about how international pressure on Iran, OPEC's No. 2 oil producer, will affect its crude output. Rebel disruptions of oil production in Nigeria, the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports, also pose a risk to supply.
"You put all these headlines together, you see the situation is getting charged up and getting out of control. That's why oil traders and speculators are having a field day — this is exactly the kind of environment that speculators want to operate in," said Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $1.48 to settle at a record $75.17 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after peaking at an all-time trading high of $75.35. The May contract, which expired Thursday, had settled at $71.95 on Thursday.
Learn more about what's pushing up pump prices.
Accounting for inflation, prices are still about 20 percent below the records reached about 25 years ago.
Traders worry that U.S. gasoline supplies may not meet summer demand after seven straight weeks of drops in domestic gasoline stocks, which are now at their lowest level since November.
"There are a lot of people that were disturbed with this week's energy numbers," said Alaron Trading Corp. analyst Phil Flynn, referring to the U.S. inventory figures. "There seems to be a lot of concern that the combination of the geopolitical issues, as well as refining issues, are enough reason not to abandon the long side of this market just yet."
U.S. refineries are performing seasonal maintenance on a greater scale this year, given the destruction wrought by last fall's hurricanes that battered the Gulf Coast. Also, the transition from gasoline additive MTBE, found to be a groundwater pollutant, to ethanol is creating additional fears about an already tight gasoline market.
Friday afternoon, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said phasing out MTBE could be complicated, and that there is no simple solution to lowering oil prices.
At this point, there is no peak in sight.
"Everyone's asking, 'What's the high? What's the high?' In a runaway bull market, you can't say. But the market will stop climbing when it finally starts to have an impact on the economy and on demand. I don't see it stopping till we reach that point," said BNP Paribas commodity futures analyst Tom Bentz.
So far, demand has not been crimped significantly, encouraging traders to keep buying into the market.
"Demand continues to be relatively strong. Supply remains tight. And the global economy seems to be doing OK. As they say, no harm, no foul," Gheit said, noting that not just oil companies, but also big financial institutions have been making billions of dollars on soaring energy prices.
Even carmakers are suffering. Ford has seen sales of its SUV Explorer take a 25 percent slide. The auto giant Friday announced more than $1 billion in losses in the first three months of 2006, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.
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