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Global oil industry needs accord to protect prices: Venezuelan leader

Xinhua, February 9, 2017 Adjust font size:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday said oil exporting countries should meet to reach an agreement on how to protect oil prices.

To that end, Maduro is calling for a summit of leaders from member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as well as nonmembers.

"I continue to propose, quite clearly, that the heads of state and government from all OPEC and non-OPEC countries must gather" to devise strategies to stabilize the world oil market, Maduro said during his regularly-scheduled radio program.

Oil exporters recently agreed to a plan to cutback output, which served to raise prices, but Maduro wants a more long-term approach.

The industry "cannot withstand another fall in prices," said Maduro, warning that would "lead to the bankruptcy of companies across the board, or push them to the brink of bankruptcy."

Maduro's Foreign Affairs Minister Delcy Rodriguez and Minister of Oil and Mining Nelson Martinez are currently on a tour of oil-exporting nations to promote the summit, visiting Russia, Iran and Iraq, and landing in Kuwait on Wednesday.

Venezuela's economy, which is very dependent on the revenues oil exports bring in, was devastated by the plummeting price of crude starting in 2014. Enditem