- BUENOS AIRES (Xinhuanet)
-- Venezuela has a "strong oil card" to play on the world geopolitical
stage and against the United States, said President Hugo Chavez in an interview
published on Sunday.
-
- "It is a card we will use in a tough game against
the toughest rival in the world -- the United States. But our actions will
be governed by transparency and respect," Chavez told the Argentine
daily Clarin.
-
- He said the card will be even more powerful if other
Latin American countries join it in a regional economic alliance.
-
- At the first meeting of the South American Community
of Nationsin Brasilia last week, Venezuelan state-run petroleum firm PDVSA
struck a deal with its Brazilian counterpart Petrobras on jointly building
an oil refinery with a total investment of 2.5 billion US dollars.
-
- The companies also agreed to extend their cooperation
in the energy sector.
-
- Chavez believed that "the energy agreements have
an intrinsic might" and "will influence the region's economic
recovery."
-
- "The entire world has the smell of oil. We are facing
an energycrisis to which we have to pay utmost attention: we've reached
thetop of the world petroleum production and the price is rising,"
he cautioned.
-
- Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter in the world
and a key crude supplier to the United States, providing the latter with1.5
million barrels of crude per day.
|
