Brown hoping for fall in fuel prices

Agreements struck with oil states

Published:

HOPEFUL: Gordon Brown is hoping for a fall in fuel prices.

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown is hopeful that fuel costs may fall after major oil producers admitted for the first time that prices were too high.

But Mr Brown who was at a global summit of oil producing nations in Saudi Arabia, declined to predict what level prices would reach at the pump.

He said agreement had been secured with members of the Opec cartel that record crude prices of almost 140 US dollars a barrel were causing damage and investment was needed to increase supply.

The Prime Minister came to the Jeddah summit offering to open UK energy markets to oil-rich states.

He urged them to reinvest some of the 3 trillion dollars of extra revenue from the current oil shock in UK energy production, including wind, solar and a new wave of nuclear power stations.

He revealed that Government plans, to be published this week will put a price of £100 billion for the UK to meet its share of an EU target to generate 20% of energy from renewables by 2020.

Much of that cash could be invested by sovereign wealth funds of oil-rich Gulf states.

Mr Brown said: “What we have got is an agreement here – perhaps for the first time – that the oil price is too high and it is detrimental, it is causing damage.

“What we’ve also got is an understanding that we’ve got to diversify out of oil and we’ve got to back nuclear, we’ve got to back renewables.”

Mr Brown said Britain had entered into commitments with Saudi Arabia to develop environment-friendly carbon capture and storage technology.

It also agreed with Qatar to explore a possible new joint energy fund, and with the United Arab Emirates on nuclear energy opportunities.