Oil summit to urge financial market transparency

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A draft final communique for Sunday's summit of energy powers calls for greater financial market transparency and more exchanges of information about oil fundamentals and the actions of investment funds, Algeria's official APS news agency reported on Saturday.

The agency, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of OPEC, said the document also underlined the need to "take the necessary measures to guarantee the stability and permanence of the energy system and raise refining capacities."

APS said the draft had been prepared ahead of talks on Sunday in the Saudi city of Jeddah between top officials and policy-makers from the world's biggest oil producers and consumers, plus the chief executives of leading oil companies.

Participants will include OPEC, the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the International Energy Forum (IEF).

Oil prices have more than doubled in a year to almost $140 a barrel, triggering protests from Brussels to Bangkok over record fuel costs that threaten the world's economy.

Saudi Arabia has said it will raise its crude output to 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in July.

APS said the draft document recommended "the strengthening of transparency of financial markets having regard to their impact on world petroleum markets".

The aim was to "reinforce transparency" and arrive at a better understanding "of the impact of international financial markets on prices and their volatilities".

The draft underlined the need to reinforce dialogue and exchange information between different market players such as OPEC, the EIA and IEF about petroleum market fluctuations, especially on the level of demand for crude and the true level of oil stocks in consuming countries, APS said.

The document signalled "the need to take steps to collect more information about the actions of investment funds," APS said. More information should be gathered about speculators and "unreal judgements about the real price of a barrel of oil and the future of the crude market".

The draft emphasised the hardening of environmental regulations and their effect on the volume of investments devoted to the increase in refinery capacity.

Investments should be increased to secure an adequate supply to consumers, APS reported the draft as saying.