OPEC meeting to protect oil prices

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has said his government is `making all the necessary contacts’ to call for an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

He said the meeting would be convened to `defend’ the international oil price, which has plummeted since 2014.

OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organisation that groups 12 oil-producing nations that produce around 70 percent of the world’s crude and possess 80 percent of the planet’s reserves.

“We are making all the necessary conversations with the OPEC government to call for an extraordinary meeting and also in coordination with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Maduro said in his weekly TV programme.

The president said the sharp fall in oil prices had created a new `structural situation’ in the world and the OPEC nations need to address the problem together.

“We must advance towards new types of actions to defend the international oil market,” Maduro said.

Venezuelan oil prices have plummeted over the last 11 months from over $90 per barrel to $42.

This has caused economic tensions in the South American nation with shortages of basic goods and products, record high inflation as well as soaring crime.

However, Maduro insists that his government’s social investment in education, health, housing and food distribution would not be cut due to low oil prices.