BACKGROUND
CONFID
AL
1. The French and Venezuelans co-hosted a "Ministerial Seminar" on oil matters in Paris on 1-2 July, to which they
We have invited 25 major oil producing and consuming nations.
We
All
all along expressed our scepticism about the value of such formalised, high-level multilateral meetings, fearing that they will lead to pressure on those attending to joint an attempt at managing the oil market, which we could not support. eventually sent a delegation headed by a senior official. others invited sent participants except the US, which sent an observer. In the event, market management was not discussed. However, further meetings were proposed, and the dialogue could still develop in undesirable directions.
The Venezuelans
have always shown signs of wanting to create mechanisms to intervene in the oil market. We also suspect elements of the French administration of hankering after market management, if only as a gesture of solidarity with oil producers, who would benefit from any resultant price rise.
2. The European Energy Charter is a proposal to create a unified energy market across Europe (including Eastern Europe and the USSR) and to create the right climate for substantially increased investment in the energy sector, especially in the USSR and Eastern Europe. The question of membership of the Charter, which, threatened to cause problems at earlier Sherpa meetings, has now been resolved: the non-European OECD members as well as all European countries are being invited to participate in the negotiations. The Preparatory Conference, chaired by the Netherlands, takes place in Brussels on 15-18 July. It is hoped that the Charter itself will be signed by
end-1991.
117sgij
CONFIDENTIAL