Venezuela Says Oil Prices to Remain at Current Level

Venezuela says oil prices to remain at current level

CARACAS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramirez said Friday that the oil prices on the international market would remain at the current level for some time.

Ramirez, who is also president of the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, told Venezuela’s national television station that the current international oil prices were “reasonable.”

It is beneficial to Venezuela to keep the average oil price at 45 US dollars per barrel, thus enabling the country to have money for building various projects, said the minister.

He explained that the increase in international oil prices was mainly caused by insufficient oil production capacity in some countries.

Ramirez predicted that oil prices would never drop back to the 22.28 dollars per barrel about one and a half years ago.

Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter.