Oil will reach $200 if US invades Iran, Chavez says
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| Published on Thursday, November 15, 2007 |
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By Steven Bodzin
CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg): Oil prices will jump to $200 a barrel if the US invades Iran, which would cut off supply, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.
"If the US happens to invade Iran, oil will not just reach $100, but $200 per barrel," Chavez said. "Not one drop of oil will leave Iran" in an invasion.
"The same would happen here," as the people of the country will halt exports, he said.
US leaders including President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have said that Iran's nuclear program represents a potential threat and have refused to rule out the use of force. Congress hasn't passed proposals restricting action against the country, the second-biggest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
"I, of course, said all options are on the table, but I made a pledge to the American people we will work diplomatically to solve the problem," Bush said in an interview last month with the satellite news station Al Arabiya.
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| Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Bloomberg Photo |
Chavez, who has met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad twice this year and signed trade agreements, said November 11 he will visit Iran "in coming days."
Crude oil for December delivery fell $3.45, or 3.7 percent, to settle at $91.17 a barrel at 2:50 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest close since October 30. It was the biggest drop since August 6. Futures climbed to $98.62 on November 7, the highest price since trading began in 1983. Oil is up 56 percent from a year ago.
Oil prices of $80 to $100 a barrel are "fair" and Venezuela will seek to keep prices in that range, Chavez said.
"We seek stabilization at $100 a barrel for several years," Chavez said at a press conference on Wednesday in Caracas. He said prices over the past 30 years were "very low" and that $100 oil today was, after inflation, similar to the $30 oil experienced in 1973 and 1974.
Chavez has increased the price he calls "fair" as oil climbed. In June, Chavez said the floor should be $60 a barrel; a year earlier he said $50 and, in 2005, $40. In 2002, he said prices of $22 to $28 a barrel were "right." In December 2000, Chavez said, "We don't want oil to increase to $40 or $50."
Today's prices are not destabilizing to the world economy, Chavez said today.
Chavez said the price increase is partly a result of "irrational" growth in energy demand in wealthy nations and that higher prices provide a chance to "reflect" on excessive consumption, particularly the use of vehicles with just one passenger.
He said he was preparing to go a summit with heads of state from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Riyadh. Several leaders of the oil cartel have said they don't plan to discuss increased oil output at this meeting.
Chavez said he would use the summit to push for increased giving to poor countries.
"We're going to propose formulas of protection for the poorest nations of the world," he said. "We could, if the prices consolidate at about $100, open an international humanitarian fund in seven years and direct $100 billion a year to the struggle against misery in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean." | | | | Reads : 455 | | | |
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