The OPEC oil ministers said the oil market was well-supplied and recent gains were due to speculation and beyond the group’s control. OPEC is scheduled to discuss oil production for the first quarter of 2008 at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 5.

The Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal rejected calls by Iran and Venezuela at the summit to discuss abandoning the U.S. currency for oil sales, saying the kingdom doesn’t want the dollar to “collapse”, however also it showed his potential to generate problems to the United States and their allies.

During OPEC MEETING the oil leaders thought were private talks, Venezuela’s oil Minister Rafael Ramirez and his Iranian counterpart Gholamhossein Nozari, argued that pricing - and selling - oil using the crippled dollar was damaging the cartel, but the Saudis, the world’s largest oil producers and de facto head of OPEC, vetoed the proposal. The Prince Saud Al-Faisal, warned that even the mere mention to journalists of the fact that leaders were discussing the weak dollar would cause the US currency to plummet ( ¿$US dollar vs €Euro?). The alliance between Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been fortified with several visits of both parts: Chávez Monday arrived at Tehran by fourth time in two years. Iran has been associated with Venezuela in several industrial projects in the South American nation, including the manufacture of automobiles, energy, plastic tractors and products, but could be an interesting bridge/way to traffic with nuclear technology in another hand Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad want to use the Cartel, like a political weapon versus George Bush´s policy.

Read the Riyadh Declaration. The Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of OPEC

|Manuel Torres Laveaga

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