Tokyo: The International Energy Agency will meet the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), banks and US and UK regulators in Tokyo next month to discuss limiting energy-price speculation.
Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the adviser to energy-consuming nations, said yesterday in Tokyo he had asked US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler, officials of the UK Financial Services Authority, and bank executives including Lawrence Eagles, head of commodities research at JPMorgan Chase & Co, to take part.
The two-day meeting will start February 25.
The CFTC has proposed curtailing investments by large banks and swaps dealers in oil, natural gas, heating oil and gasoline amid concern speculators drove crude prices to a record $147.27 a barrel in 2008.
Discussions will explore the reasons for big price swings in the past two years and the introduction of rules to stabilise the market in future.
"Opec and regulators must have come to the conclusion that a flow of big money from bloated global banks into the commodities market is responsible for big swings in prices for oil and metals," said Tetsu Emori, a chief fund manager at Astmax Co in Tokyo.
"Like President Barack Obama, regulators may have to take decisive measures to limit investment by banks."
Obama proposed last week to limit the size of banks and prohibit them from investing in hedge funds and private equity funds as a way to reduce risk-taking and prevent a repeat of the credit crisis.
"Obama's proposal would change banks' behaviour, and we should watch closely to see if it is going to affect the energy market," Tanaka said. "Stable energy prices are vital to fuelling sustainable economic growth in China and India in coming years."
$70-$80 a barrel ‘ideal'
Crude oil prices between $70 and $80 a barrel are "ideal" for producer and consumers, but do not represent a formal target range for oil exporters, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al Nuaimi said in an interview posted on the website of the Saudi-based International Energy Forum.
"No one is talking about a band, no one is talking about fixing a price," said Al Nuaimi, apparently referring to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
Opec does not have an official price target currently, but several officials have expressed satisfaction with the $70-$80 range.
Opec in December kept its oil output restraints in place in an effort to clear away burgeoning stockpiles that have threatened to weaken prices.
