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Venezuela urges OPEC to cut
output
The Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC)
should cut its oil production by
500,000 to 1 million barrels a
day, Venezuela's Oil and Energy
Minister Rafael Ramirez said on
Thursday.
He did not say, however, when
the cut should begin.
Ramirez, also president of
Petroleos de Venezuela, the
state-owned oil company, said
that based on current demand
estimates, OPEC is now
overproducing 1 million barrels
per day.
Having peaked at a record 70.85
U.S. dollars per barrel in last
August, oil prices have fallen
back to their lowest levels in
recent weeks since the end of
December.
In January, OPEC agreed to keep
current production levels of 28
million barrels per day, which
are close to a 25-year high.
OPEC ministers are due to meet
again on March 8 in Vienna,
headquarters of the 11-member
cartel, to set production levels
for the spring season.
Venezuela, the world's fifth
largest exporter of crude oil,
produces 3.3 million barrels per
day, some 1.5 million of which
is sold to the United States.
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