RECORD HIGH: Oil rigs extract petroleum in Culver City, California, on May 16. Oil prices broke through $145 a barrel for the first time on July 3

Oil prices around the world have been rocketing since the end of 2007. Oil prices broke through $145 a barrel for the first time on July 3. This is six times the price in early 2002, which stood at some $20 per barrel, and a record high since the two oil crises in 1973 and 1979. To address the crisis, an international energy conference was held in Jeddah, a port city in the west of Saudi Arabia, on June 22. Proposed by Saudi King Abdullah, the meeting gathered heads of governments and ministers of 36 countries and representatives of more than 20 large oil companies. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping addressed its opening ceremony. The statement issued at the meeting called on oil producers and consumers to make joint efforts and take effective measures to stabilize the international oil market.

High oil prices have fueled changes in the world's economic and political relations.