Fears of energy squeeze prompt fresh talks

Amid mounting fears of a global energy squeeze, Europe’s top energy official met oil ministers from the Gulf states this weekend to ask them to step-up production and help guarantee the continent’s future energy supply.

The EU’s energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, held talks with Kuwait’s oil minister and current president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, at a time when record oil prices are adding to the clouds gathering over Europe’s economy.
The Opec president later told reporters that following the recent price surge, the oil cartel would restart talks to raise the production ceiling by half-a-million barrels a day. Mr Piebalgs also announced that the EU and Opec would hold a ministerial summit in Brussels in June to discuss the region’s energy security.