Venezuela's Rodriguez outlines oil policy-MEES
<Picture>3.25 a.m. ET (0825 GMT) December 14, 1998
NICOSIA, Dec 14 — Ali Rodriguez, who is tipped for the post of oil minister in Venezuela's new administration, said in remarks published on Monday that the OPEC giant will work to reunite the fading cartel and enlarge it if possible.
"Our objective is to strengthen and reunite OPEC, and if possible, enlarge the organisation,'' he told the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) in an interview at OPEC's winter meeting in Vienna last month.
Rodriguez is a top oil adviser to Venezuelan President-elect Hugo Chavez and is widely expected to be the country's next energy and mines minister.
Chavez has created waves in the international oil world with some radical ideas to shake up energy policy in OPEC power Venezuela, the world's third biggest exporter.
He has promised closer ties with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and has vowed to sack Luis Giusti, the internationally acclaimed president of Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), whom he blames for contributing to this year's oil price crash.
Rodriguez said OPEC had no choice but to reach consensus. "If there were no OPEC, we would have a price war. This would be a disaster for the producing countries,'' Rodriguez told MEES.
"The objectives are to limit production in order to defend prices but eventually to recover the organisation's market share,'' he added.
Rodriguez said the question of price should be discussed jointly with that of expanding OPEC's market share.
"This would be our commitment to the organisation,'' he said.
Rodriguez said a new OPEC market share policy could only be formulated after several obstacles were overcome -- low demand, high inventories and the lack of full implementation of previous OPEC agreements.
"Projections available to us indicate that demand will be depressed until the year 2001. What is required is a long-term strategy rather than short-term reactions. Meanwhile, and at the end of the day, we have to adjust to market conditions,'' he said.
Rodriguez said that OPEC members' production capacity plans should be discussed within the organisation because "it does not make sense for one country alone to sacrifice its interests to the benefit of others.''
"Is it justifiable for OPEC member states to raise production capacity in light of the depressed world oil demand?,'' Rodriguez asked.
Turning to the Chavez administration's policy on PDVSA, Rodriguez said that in light of the domestic economic situation, "it is not possible for PDVSA to achieve a capacity of 6.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the year 2005.''
He added that local conditions do not support a $65 billion development plan by the company and that oil policy "will have to be made by the Ministry of Oil.''
The new administration will impose changes in PDVSA "but not so dramatic or big as to provoke a disorder,'' Rodriguez said.
He said the government will scrupulously respect all upstream agreements signed with international firms under the Oil Opening Policy but that the scheme favoured international investment.
Rodriguez said the Chavez administration will change this course of policy and support the Venezuelan private sector in upstream and service industries.
foxmarketwire.com |
