Venezuela to Urge for OPEC Meeting on Stemming Oil Price Fall - Maduro

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Venezuela's Petroleum Minister Eulogio Del Pino will visit OPEC member states to drum up support for holding a meeting on stemming the fall in oil prices, the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, said.

"We are making efforts so that the OPEC meeting is realized… The financial and social effects of the oil price have been tragic. I have given the order to Minister Del Pino to start an urgent tour to restore oil prices," Maduro said on Tuesday, as quoted by the daily Ultimas Noticias.

Maduro added that his country was facing a financial emergency, but has been able to manage the problem so far.

On Monday, OPEC’s Secretary General Abdallah Salem Badri urged OPEC member states, as well as non-member oil producers, to combine efforts to stem the global excess supply in order to end the price free-fall and enable further investment.

On January 21, news of a possible extraordinary OPEC meeting in March emerged after remarks by Nigerian Petroleum Resources Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The organization had previously agreed to hold a meeting should prices fall below $35 per barrel, according to the minister.

Market prices for benchmark Brent and WTI crude dropped to a 12-year low in mid-January, sliding below the historic level of $30 a barrel before slightly recovering after January 20, climbing slightly above $31 per barrel by Wednesday.