Venezuela Oil Delegation Meets Qatar Officials on OPEC Tour

 

The recession-hit South American nation is one of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries group's worst-affected members from the oil price slide.

 

So far unable to nudge Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies into supporting supply cuts, Venezuela is exploring various options to boost its position including a proposal to blend its heavy crude with OPEC allies' light grades.

 

"We had an excellent working meeting with Qatar Energy and Industry Minister Mohammed Saleh al-Sada," Chavez, who is the nephew of former president Hugo Chavez, said via Twitter (TWTR).

 

Underlining the importance Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is giving to the tour, Chavez was accompanied by Finance Minister Rodolfo Marco and Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez.

 

They also met Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani.

 

"Minister Chavez stressed that Venezuela and Qatar possess important strategic links, and are evaluating various investment projects for Qatari businesses in the Orinoco Oil Belt, Venezuela's energy ministry said in the statement.

 

Venezuela is pinning hopes for the future of its oil industry on the heavy-crude Orinoco region, which has the bulk of its nearly 300 billion barrels of reserves.

 

"They discussed subjects relating to Venezuela's proposal to create a consensus within OPEC to strengthen the market from external threats causing great instability in prices over recent months," the ministry statement said.

 

"They agreed it is necessary to strengthen the organization (OPEC) as the ideal vehicle for dialogue, cooperation and stabilization of crude price levels."

 

OPEC next meets on June 5.

 

Iran and a Libyan OPEC official have urged the group to consider output cuts, while Kuwait, in a view expected to be that of the other Gulf OPEC members, has said the policy will remain unchanged.