A hastily arranged oil summit held this weekend in Saudi Arabia yielded few results. Oil ministers from 35 nations failed to reach an agreement about how to ease soaring global oil prices. Even Saudi Arabia’s decision to pump 200,000 more barrels per day was greeted with a yawn in financial markets, where prices rose modestly after the announcement. Oil producing countries blamed speculators for rising prices but importing countries including the United States say more supply is needed to meet worldwide demand.
Most major media outlets portrayed the summit as largely ineffective.