ABUJA: The upcoming summit of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Caracas will strengthen support for the price band system adopted this year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in Abuja yesterday.
Chavez criticised pressure on Opec from the United States, Britain and other industrialised countries to increase production and reduce prices, saying the oil economies simply wanted a “fair price” for their product.
Oil prices had crashed disastrously in 1998 and early 1999, Chavez said, speaking through an interpreter, after a meeting with his Nigerian counterpart President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“When we came into government in Venezuela, oil price was at its lowest, at under eight dollars a barrel. Practically this means a death sentence to all our people,” he said, standing beside the Nigerian leader. “If the prices had stayed at this level, I think that in Venezuela something would have exploded already,” he said.
© - Agence France Press
