France has asked major oil companies to limit retail price rises as part of a campaign to soften the impact of record high crude oil prices, French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy met representatives of the oil and automobile industry to announce the government’s plans to deal with the high oil prices, which, in the past week, soared to a record of over $55 per barrel as rising demand strains supplies.
Sarkozy told representatives of Total, Exxon Mobil, BP and Agip that prices at the petrol pump had increased eight to 15 per cent and posed a risk to French economic growth, but that its effect should not be overestimated.
“I perfectly understand the need to recuperate the increased costs in your prices. I can only insist that you do so by limiting the rise by a strict minimum,” Sarkozy told the oil firms.
“If the French government has decided not to add to the increase in prices with an increase in taxes, it is equally desirable that the industry does not add to the hike with an increase in profits,” he added.
Sarkozy said after the meeting that while this was only a recommendation, the firms understood the long-term impact of the price increases on the economy
   “They are in complete agreement on the need to calm the oil market,” he said.

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Friday, 29 October 2004 13:00:50
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