Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called for fairer oil prices to help producers, saying OPEC and states not aligned with the cartel needed to create a «new mechanism» to ensure the price of oil was propped up.
Speaking at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, Maduro said an informal meeting of cartel members on Wednesday that was also expected to include non-OPEC state Russia could be a first step towards creating a new alliance.
The price of crude has recovered in the last days but the recent period of low oil prices has been deeply hurtful for producers like Venezuela who are heavily dependent on crude exports.
«Prices are not sustainable anymore and have fallen to their lowest levels for the last 40 years,» Maduro said. «We see they are even below production costs.»
Referring to the upcoming OPEC talks on October 12, 2016, he expressed hope that «the energy ministers can reach an agreement and through this agreement we hope there can be an alliance among producers.
«If there can be let it be formed. For the market to have stability we are ready to do everything, hopefully in the next 6 months we will come up with a new mechanism.
«We need a new mechanism. The oil world needs realistic and fair prices.»
Quoting his predecessor Hugo Chavez, Maduro also railed against the «insatiable imperialist vampires» and said «we need to fight against them in energy and politics.»
Maduro had earlier held bilateral talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Ottoman-era Yildiz Palace in Istanbul.
After finally winning the approval of its kingpin Saudi Arabia, OPEC last month agreed to a surprise output cut to drive up prices, its first in eight years.
However, the success of this will depend on compliance among OPEC members and the output of non-OPEC states, especially Russia.
