Chavez links oil price hikes to threats on Iran

Chavez links oil price hikes to threats on Iran
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Monday July 14, 2008 [04:00]

VENEZUELA President Hugo Chavez has said oil prices are rising to astronomical levels due to threats against Iran and Venezuela, including the geopolitical situation in the Middle East. President Chavez also said other multiple factors to the push up in petroleum prices was lack of investment in refineries. Meanwhile, Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro opened the 5th PetroCaribe summit in Maracaibo, Venezuela on Saturday urging member states to look deep into the causes of global energy, food and financial crisis.

On his arrival in Maracaibo, President Chavez said PetroCaribe was arrived at following the continuously rising oil prices caused by multiple factors.

"Prices have made unbelievable leaps but a number of forces push them up," he said. "Threats against Iran and Venezuela, the situation in Iraq and the geopolitical situation in the Middle East."

According to the PDVSA (Venezuelan state-owned oil firm) website, President Chavez said another issue that affected oil prices was non-investment in refining.

President Chavez said capitalists considered investment in refining not cost-effective. "Nobody would invest in refineries," he said.

"Venezuela was one of the few countries that always made plans and started to enlarge refineries. Thank God, we timely triggered a plan for the Cienfuegos Refinery in Cuba."

President Chavez said plans were underway to enlarge Venezuelan refineries in Paraguaná in Falcón State, El Palito in Carabobo State, and Puerto La Cruz Refinery, in Anzoátegui state.

He disclosed that the construction of a complex in Barinas would start soon.

President Chavez also said the summit would discuss the food crisis.

"It is impossible in a summit nowadays anywhere in the world not to talk about the food crisis that endangers the world," said President Chavez. "The point at issue is to work on sovereignty and food reliability.

All of us have a great power to use the plow-land through the petrochemical industry and our peoples' manpower to produce all the foodstuffs, by using oil revenues and integration means."

And Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage said the Cienfuegos Refinery was operating since December 2007 over its design capacity and was currently processing 76,000 bpd (barrels per day).

"The issue of high oil prices would not be so serious if there was solidarity in the world," Vice-President Lage said.

He said rich countries, which have the money and were wasteful in oil consumption, should refrain themselves a little bit and consume less fuel.

"Squander less," urged Vice-President Lage. "There should be solidarity with those which lack oil, other nations should be as supportive as Venezuela."

Meanwhile, Maduro said PetroCaribe was a successful supportive formula that sought to fight the energy crisis that hit the weakest countries in the region.

"At this 5th Summit, there will be an insight into the causes of the energy, food and financial troubles throughout the world," he said.
Maduro said such an insight would help renew, refurbish and strengthen the PetroCaribe's formula as an equation intended to protect the underprivileged countries from those scourges.

"PetroCaribe gives an answer to the actual plight undergone by our peoples and helps to devise formulae that go beyond the old mercantilist-capitalist vision of integration," said Maduro.

PetroCaribe is an Energy Cooperation Agreement based on solidarity support proposed by the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela intended to overcome asymmetries with regard to access to energy resources.

"This agreement aims at establishing a new favourable, equal and just exchange scheme between the countries of the Caribbean region, most of them without a State-controlled supply of these resources," says President Chavez.

The current members are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Surinam and Venezuela.

Petrocaribe has also made progress regarding the creation of an Energy Security Treaty which attempts to complement available primary energy sources by exploiting the potential of and developing renewable energy sources, promoting technological exchange to search new energy sources, and promoting the efficient use of energy so as to achieve maximum savings and energy efficiency.