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11/25/2004:

"Chavez Wants OPEC Target Price Raised"

MOSCOW (Reuters) - OPEC member Venezuela will ask the oil cartel to revise the bottom end of its official price target range up to at least $30 per barrel, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday.

Chavez told Reuters the current OPEC price corridor of $22-$28 had been consigned to history because of sustained high oil prices. ``It has been pulverized,'' he said, adding that the upper range should be determined by the market itself.

``The discussion is already on the table and we believe that now the minimum should be $30 a barrel and the maximum whatever the market says,'' he said. ``It (the oil price) is $48-$50 per barrel right now and this is what the market is saying.''

Chavez reiterated that Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, had no plans to support a cut in oil production by OPEC.

``There is lot of demand and oil production is almost at capacity. There is almost no capacity to increase production and demand continues to grow,'' he said.

On a visit to non-OPEC Russia to promote energy cooperation with the world's No. 2 oil exporter, Chavez said earlier in a speech that Moscow had played a big part in helping bring about a rise in oil prices from lows of around $10 in the late 1990s.

``It is important here to reiterate the role that Russia has played in order to attain these oil prices,'' he told an oil and gas industry conference. ``We cannot allow oil prices to fall again.''

Chavez took a swipe at Washington, which he has often accused of trying to topple him, saying that his country's oil policy had been subservient to the United States in the past.

LIKE LITTLE RABBITS

``They used to have us by the throat like little rabbits but now we are free and will continue to be free,'' said Chavez.

``Venezuela used not to respect OPEC (export) quotas because it was manipulated by Washington. We recovered our sovereignty,'' he said, adding that Moscow had given Venezuela moral support in this regard.

Turning to Venezuela's oil industry, he said: ``We (in Venezuela) have to make a big effort of investment to recover old and mature wells and to recover heavy crude.''

He said he welcomed Russian know-how in handling heavy crude oils, which are abundant in Venezuela.

If proven reserves in the Orinoco tar belt were included in the tally, ``Venezuela would become the country with the biggest oil reserves on the planet,'' he said.

``We also hope that Russia does not hold back in the search for Venezuelan gas,'' he said.

``The diversification of our business is part of our policy and it is something that our friends from the north do not like,'' said Chavez, referring to the United States.

Analysts say Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA's oil production has not fully recovered from a strike which ended in early 2003. But officials insist output is back to pre-strike levels of over three million barrels per day.

Russian oil major LUKOIL is expected to sign a deal with PDVSA on Friday, under which the Siberian producer will invest up to $1 billion in mature and untapped Venezuela fields containing heavy crude, as well as in gas projects.
nytimes.com/reuters