Nigeria wants talks with Venezuela on oil price

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua wants to meet with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez to discuss world oil prices, his office said on Friday. 'Fingers are being pointed at our two countries as a result of the energy situation in the world,' Yar'Adua was quoted as saying in a statement from the presidency. It didn't say who was pointing fingers nor why. In remarks to Venezuela's outgoing ambassador to Nigeria, he said a meeting between the two nations -- both members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) -- had become 'imperative.' No indication was given of whether steps had already been taken to set up a meeting between the two leaders. Record oil prices are putting pressure on the global economy, saddling companies and consumers around the world with higher energy costs and triggering protests from farmers in Spain to students in Nepal. OPEC's biggest exporter Saudi Arabia has announced plans to hike output to 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) -- the fastest pace in decades -- but some consumer economies blame the oil exporter group for doing too little to combat the rally.