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Venezuela wants move away
from dollar oil prices
Brian Ellsworth
Reuters
Tuesday November 27, 2007
Venezuela on Tuesday called for oil to be priced and
billed in currencies other than the weak U.S. dollar, which has
eroded producer nations' purchasing power.
Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez also blamed the United States
for record high oil prices, saying its political pressure on some
oil-producing countries had helped push crude toward $100 a barrel.
Ramirez said in an interview with state television that OPEC
should price its oil in a basket of currencies rather than pricing
it in dollars.
Benchmark crude oil is traded in dollars on the world's top energy
exchanges, NYMEX and ICE, and traders say there is no sign that
OPEC proposals to change currencies will cause those exchanges
to shift.
(Article continues below)
Ramirez was reinforcing a position Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez promoted this month at an OPEC summit in U.S. ally Saudi
Arabia. The influential hosts objected and ensured the proposal
gained little traction among the oil cartel's members.
"The oil price is at $100 a barrel, but what dollar are
we talking about? It's a dollar that makes you laugh," said
Ramirez, who will stake out a hawkish stance on oil prices at
an OPEC meeting next month.
"The dollar has devalued and it is distorting the oil market
because there is a financial crisis knocking on the U.S. door,"
he said.
Full
article here.
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INFOWARS:
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