A four-year rally, fuelled by supply constraints from the oilfield to the refinery gate, has left both sides with bumper profits. This year, worries over Iran's exports and industry crises in Iraq and Nigeria have pushed oil to levels that threaten economic growth.

Consumer governments are urging the likes of Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell to spend money building refineries. The companies want major producers like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE to drill for more oil.

Energy security is one of the most critical issues facing the world today, " said Chevron chief executive David O'Reilly ahead of the meeting.

Calls for more spending to satisfy rampant consumption would stand a better chance of being met if multinationals and the nations straddling the world's reserves worked together . . . something major oil firms are beginning to recognise.

Three days of talks at the Doha meeting of the International Energy Forum will not herald a new era of cooperation, but chief executives have woken up to the reality that they must ask less of producers when seeking access to reserves.

Today's national energy companies are technologically and managerially sophisticated and financially very strong, " Malcolm Brinded, executive director of exploration and production at Royal Dutch Shell, said in a recent speech.

So, what they require of their international partners is very different from in the past."