Come to think of it, the parallels between Chavez and Putin are quite close in a lot of ways. They're both trying to create more efficient, equitable economies by beating up on their respective oligarchs.
Friday, November 26, 2004. Page 7.
The Moscow Times Chavez Calls on OPEC to Lift Oil Price Targets
By Lyuba Pronina Staff Writer
Oil producers should ensure that the price of oil never again falls below $30 per barrel, visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.
Chavez, a former president of OPEC, urged fellow cartel members to vote in favor of current production quotas at next month's meeting in Cairo and for a higher price target for crude.
"The $22 to $28 barrel price is history now. We should never let oil prices drop sharply," Chavez told an industry conference in Moscow.
The war in Iraq and growing demand have pushed oil prices beyond a record $50 per barrel in recent months, fueling an unprecedented economic expansion in non-OPEC Russia, the world's largest exporter after Saudi Arabia.
But Chavez said it is pointless to talk about a maximum oil price when "one barrel of water is more expensive than a barrel of oil, a barrel of wine is three times as expensive, and a barrel of whisky is even more expensive."
Chavez, the populist leader of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, urged Russian companies to help develop his country's vast hydrocarbon reserves.
"Our potential? First of all it is in our peoples and then oil," he said.
LUKoil is expected to sign an agreement Friday with Venezuela's state-owned oil giant PDVSA to explore joint production projects in South America.
PDVSA director Eulogio del Pino told reporters on the sidelines of the conference that the plan is to create a joint venture in which Venezuela would own 51 percent.
He said specific terms and investment figures would be hammered out at a later date.
LUKoil has said it may spend up to $1 billion developing Venezuelan oil fields.
Del Pino also invited Russian companies to participate in projects to extract natural gas off Venezuela's northern coast.
Chavez said Russia is a key part of his country's economic and political strategy to diversify its relations with strategic partners.
"Our northern neighbor, the United States, might not like that very much," he said.
The charismatic leader also thanked "President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government and the Russian people" for their support during what he called two years of aggression by the United States, which he accused of trying to overthrow him in 2002.
"They used to hold us by the throat like this, like a rabbit," Chavez said, shaking an imaginary rabbit with his fist. "We are free now, and we will continue to be free," he said to a round of applause.
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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