Leading figures from the oil world gather in Madrid

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

MADRID (AFP) — Leading figures in the oil world gather in Madrid on Monday for one of the industry's biggest events that will focus on the future of the sector at a time of unprecedented crude prices.

A week after failing to deflate the price of crude at a summit in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producers and consumers will get another chance during talks here to explore ways of calming tense global energy markets.

More than 3,000 delegates, including leading corporate and political figures, are attending the four-day World Petroleum Congress (WPC), which runs from Monday to Thursday after an official opening reception on Sunday.

The gathering follows a surge in oil prices Friday that took both New York light sweet crude and Brent North Sea crude to...