OPEC-MEETING/VENEZUELA Venezuela to keep seeking 'fair' oil price despite OPEC reverse

Record ID: 861225

  • Title: OPEC-MEETING/VENEZUELA Venezuela to keep seeking 'fair' oil price despite OPEC reverse
  • Date: 27th November 2014
  • Summary: CARABOBO, VENEZUELA (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) OIL RIG VARIOUS OF OIL REFINERY
  • Embargoed: 12th December 2014 12:00
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  • Location: Austria
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  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6FUZGFWDNNRI0CBZMMGR5J6EC
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  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Venezuela will maintain contact with non-OPEC countries as it sees a fair global oil price, Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday (November 27), despite OPEC's refusal to cut output as the cash-strapped South American country had aggressively pushed for.
    Saudi Arabia blocked calls from poorer members of the OPEC oil exporter group for production cuts to arrest a slide in global prices, sending benchmark crude plunging to a fresh four-year low
    The decision is a blow to Venezuela's flailing economy, widely believed to be in recession, and also highlights the country's diminished influence in OPEC, which it helped found.
    Still, Ramirez, until September the country's oil minister and head of state oil company PDVSA, said Venezuela would continue to defend prices and monitor the market situation.
    "To keep a ceiling on production, reduce the overproduction of oil up to the ceiling of 30 million barrels. Since December 2011 we have decided to maintain OPEC's production at 30 million. What we had observed was that there was an overproduction of at least 500,000 barrels of petrol and we have decided to keep it at 30 (million). Then we saw different factors affect the market which has seen a 30% fall in price and we hope that with this decision we can have more tools so as to continue to monitor market behaviour," he said.
    Venezuela deems $100 a barrel a fair price for oil but it faces an upward battle to win over the wealthy Gulf states that have made it clear they are ready to ride out the weak prices.
    The prospect of continued low oil prices, however, is disastrous for Venezuela, which is grappling to pay arrears with private companies ranging from airlines to oil partners, expensive social programs, and major bond payments.
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