Venezuela's Hugo Chavez insisted Tuesday that $28 was a "fair" price for a barrel of oil, adding that prices were "relative" and that developed western nations received $100 in profit for every barrel.
Venezuela's output quota rose 92,800 barrels per day (bpd) after OPEC ministers agreed to an 800,000-bpd output increase in Vienna Monday.
The measure has failed to cool prices with oil expected to reach around $40 per barrel by the end of 2000 Chavez praised "the extraordinary defense of the price of our oil," but added that balanced prices were the government's goal.
"We are happy to find a balance but if you say to me that $28 per barrel is high, I will say no ... we are looking for a fair price," he said, speaking this afternoon at the inauguration of the Bolivarian Women's Movement.
On Tuesday Venezuelan government officials re-iterated an earlier OPEC communiqué that high oil prices were the result of refining problems, stringent environmental regulations in developed countries and high taxes at the pump.
OPEC President and Venezuela Oil minister Ali Rodriguez warned Monday that OPEC only had spare capacity of 2 million barrels per day and that a global energy crisis was looming if fundamental problems with oil markets were not addressed.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
