Riyadh.- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, restated his hopes for imperialist forces not to intervene in any member country of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC). President Chavez made these statements during an international press conference held at the end of the Third OPEC Summit of Sovereigns and Heads of State that took place in Saudi Arabia.

“Let’s hope powerful countries do not turn desperate, specially the United States government which is like Count Dracula at six in the morning when he hasn’t found any blood to suck. We have oil to guarantee a supply to the world. But the poorest ones are the ones with problems. That is why I always bring that up in the conversation. USA has to pay for oil”, stated the Venezuelan President.

“Imperialistic desperations have only complicated the world more. There is Iraq, where they haven’t been able to resume oil production, but why? Because of the domestic situation which resulted from the US invasion”, he sustained.

The President questioned energy waste and stated that rational oil consumption would allow using this resource for another 100 years. When referring to the possibility of having the OPEC basket priced in currencies different than the dollar, President Chavez informed that the Ministries of Finance from the thirteen member countries will study this proposal according to what the Presidents agreed.

Furthermore, President Chavez announced Angola’s participation in the Orinoco Oil Belt and PDVSA’s participation in this African nation’s exploration and production activities. “As Ahmadinejad was saying, the dollar has depreciated almost 40% in the past three years. This greatly affects our economies, for this reason it is necessary to study this topic. OPEC should not be the only one to study it, Europe and Asia should as well. The dollar’s drop is a world problem”, he asserted.

The Venezuelan President said he was satisfied with the results from the Third Summit, and expressed his interest in having OPEC become aware of his role as a “political, social and ethnic player in the world”. Furthermore, he stated that the creation of the Bank of OPEC is more important now than it has ever been.

OPEC concluded its Summit with a Declaration that guarantees a stable, inexpensive and fair oil supply to the world. The Sovereigns also agreed to work towards the eradication of poverty and the promotion of sustainable development; hence maintaining the compromise of contributing to the OPEC fund.