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US Energy Sec: World wants stable oil prices
2009-05-24
ROME - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday that the world wants oil prices to remain stable, warning that a new spike could harm the economic recovery. Speaking in Rome where he is attending an energy meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries opening Sunday, Chu said that both the oil producing and the oil consuming countries have an interest in keeping energy prices stable. "Another spike in oil certainly will have very big consequences" on the world's economy, he said at a joint news conference with Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola. Last year, prices for crude oil and other energy products reached record highs, fell sharply when the global financial slowdown hit and then rose again at the first signs of economic improvement. Oil supplies have been in flux recently. OPEC countries have boosted exports by an estimated 200,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to June 6. Also on Saturday Chu signed a bilateral agreement with Italy to cooperate on carbon capture and sequestration -- a process to store greenhouse gas carbon dioxide underground. "The issue of carbon capture and sequestration are issues that the world has not solved," Chu said. "We need to capture the carbon ... and sequestrate (emissions) safely and we have to do this in an economically viable way." The cooperation deal includes common projects, development of new technologies and exchange of experts and researchers. It also provides cooperation on developing green coal technologies.
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