It does. Unfortunately, only Venezuela seems to be really with Iran on the politics of collective oil pricing, and yet Iran and Venezuela are probably also the least able to afford any big production cuts among the major oil producers and exporters.
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aeuOrlVKfXvw&refer=latin_america> Iran, Venezuela Urge OPEC to Keep Oil Production Low (Correct) By Theresa Bradley
(Corrects OPEC ranking in the third paragraph, Ortega hiatus in the ninth paragraph in a story from yesterday.)
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Iran and Venezuela will urge other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lower oil production in a bid to bolster prices as cooperation between the two nations grows.
"There's too much crude on the market, so we support the decision to cut production and preserve the price of oil,'' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said after signing 11 economic, energy and education accords with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Caracas.
Iran and Venezuela, OPEC's second- and fourth-largest oil producers, face "the same imperialist push to control our oil resources,'' said Chavez, who this week stepped up plans to implement his own socialist program in Venezuela. "Our two revolutions, the Islamic Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, are in the end one, single fight.''
The two leaders, meeting for at least the third time in six months, have deepened political ties through shared opposition to the United States and its policies in the developing world. Tonight, they unveiled plans to create a joint "strategic'' investment fund to aid allies and finance development in their two nations.
<http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3222,36-855255,0.html?xtor=RSS-3210> Le Venezuela et l'Iran font front commun pour relancer à la hausse le prix du baril LEMONDE.FR avec AFP et Reuters | 14.01.07 | 08h53 • Mis à jour le 14.01.07 | 08h54
Fort de leurs richesses pétrolières, le Venezuela d'Hugo Chavez et l'Iran de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ont décidé de faire front commun pour faire repartir à la hausse le cours du pétrole.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Au terme de cette rencontre, le président Chavez a indiqué que les deux pays allaient désormais "décupler [leurs] efforts coordonnés au sein de l'Opep et au-delà auprès des grands producteurs pour sauvegarder les prix" du pétrole, en soutenant une réduction de la production de pétrole. Le prix du baril a chuté de 15% cette année, du fait notamment d'un hiver étonnamment doux aux Etats-Unis qui a réduit la consommation d'or noir. "Aujourd'hui nous savons qu'il y a trop de pétrole sur le marché", a déploré Chavez.
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>