Moscow (Platts)--17Jun2008

Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin said Tuesday it remains uncertain
what the main driving force behind the current surge in oil prices to record
levels is, and that it is unclear how they will behave going forward.

"The general opinion is that neither the International Energy Agency nor
the leading countries have a clear picture of what is decisive and how the
price will behave," Kudrin said on the sidelines of an investors conference in
Moscow.
"We are currently facing even greater uncertainty regarding the crude
price," Kudrin said.

On the weekend, finance minsters from the G8 countries--Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US--issued a joint statement
expressing "serious concerns" about current high oil prices after meeting in
Osaka, Japan.

The statement called for oil producing countries to boost investment to
increase long-term production capacities, while also admitting that financial
factors play a role.

"We and a number of [G8] ministers believe that speculation is somewhat
overestimated, while OPEC believes on the contrary that the price has
speculation characteristics and is driven by the dollar rate," Kudrin said.

The G8 finance ministers also called for the International Monetary Fund
and International Energy Agency to analyze the reasons behind the current
price surge and report back to the G8.

"Today we see that despite the slowing in economic growth, the price is
growing," Kudrin said.

"We see discrepancies with previous trends that used to work," Kudrin
added, noting that at previous finance minister meetings the general
understanding was that a slowdown in economic growth would push prices down.