CARACAS: Venezuela will push for an oil price band proposal at an upcoming summit in Saudi Arabia between South American and Arab nations, President Nicolas Maduro said.
OPEC price hawk Venezuela, struggling from the collapse in crude prices, wants the group to establish a price band between $70 and $80 per barrel to ensure oilfield investments and help strengthen its shrinking economy.
Maduro said late on Tuesday that Venezuela had been coordinating with Ecuador, Iran and Algeria to present a proposal at the summit, to be held from Nov. 8 to 10.
“It cannot be that we produce the oil and others set the price,” Maduro said during a weekly TV broadcast. “Our proposal is that the price be set by producers in a basic band of 70 to 80 (dollars per barrel), and then by movements of the market.”
Venezuela originally presented the proposal at an OPEC meeting of technical experts in Vienna in late October, but the group did not end up taking concrete measures as a result.
The Summit of South American-Arab Countries, known as ASPA, is a forum for political cooperation and generally does not include technical discussions of oil prices or production policies that are central to OPEC meetings.
ASPA is composed of the 12 countries of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and 22 members of the Arab League.
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