Venezuela's Chavez Sees Stability Returning to Oil Markets

"I exhort you to place the price of oil at zero bolivares and I assure you that Venezuela does not enter into economic crisis, because we have means to maintain ourselves. The revolution does not stop and will not stop," says Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

Pointing to a recent rise in oil prices, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said here Monday that the "unity" of the world's big producers of crude will restore stability to global petroleum markets. He also told a rally in Caracas of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela that even if the price of Venezuelan oil should fall to zero, the "revolution" he has led since taking office in 1999 would continue. "Yesterday, (oil) rose $5 ... the price has been recovering, seeking stability ... and we will reach it and moreover, we oil exporting countries are very united," the president said.

Venezuela is the world's No. 5 oil exporter, a key supplier of crude to the United States and a founding member of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries. OPEC crude closed at $39.95 a barrel last Friday, the first trading session of 2009, up $4.37 from the last day of 2008, the cartel's Vienna-based secretariat said. U.S. benchmark crude, West Texas Intermediate, settled at $48.81 a barrel in Monday's trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. After soaring to nearly $150 a barrel last summer, oil plunged to less than $40 a barrel amid a big drop in demand due to the world economic slowdown. Venezuela's heavy, high-sulfur crude sold for $32.14 a barrel on Dec. 19, the most recent figure provided by the Energy Ministry, which is due Friday to resume weekly reports on the oil markets.

Chavez said Monday that opponents who are dreaming of a continuing plunge in oil prices to derail his agenda will be in for a disappointment. "Gentlemen of the Venezuelan opposition parties: I exhort you to place the price of oil at zero bolivares and I assure you that Venezuela does not enter into economic crisis, because we have means to maintain ourselves. The revolution does not stop and will not stop," he said.