Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.– For poor countries, the steady rise in oil prices has taken on nightmare proportions. At the start of the Jeddah meeting this week, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah suggested that OPEC create a one billion dollar fund to compensate poor countries for the rising price of oil.

The situation in Latin America was illustrated by Dominican Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa, who said that “in 2004, the oil bill was covered by the remittances sent home from Dominicans abroad, with 560 million dollars left over, while this year remittances are expected to run to 1.9 billion dollars, compared to an oil bill of 4.5 billion.”

The price bubble continues to swell, to the benefit of these interests, although analysts like Alexander Green, investment director at the Oxford Club, a private, international network of investors, say oil prices will inevitably come down.

The informal June 22 meeting of representatives of governments and the major oil companies in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah called for more investment in crude production, as well as greater transparency in oil markets, where futures trading is helping to drive prices up.

Producer and consumer nations and companies will meet again in Madrid next week, at the 19th World Petroleum Congress, and in late 2008 in London.