Venezuela's Maduro to discuss situation on oil markets with Putin Thursday

On Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro, who will arrive in Russia on a working visit. According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the sides will focus on bilateral Russian-Venezuelan relations, and namely particular projects in energy, and banking and financial sector.

“Of course, the topics will include the situation on the global oil markets, and also other topical issues,” he added.

The Venezuelan leader visited several OPEC nations last week, as well as China, to hold a number of high-level discussions to continue the effort to restore world oil prices, which have fallen to their lowest in almost six years.

Venezuela is among the world’s ten largest oil exporters. According to a US Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2012 report, Venezuela’s oil exports reached 1.7 million barrels. Saudi Arabia took the top spot with exports estimated at 8.8 million barrels per day.

After a meeting on November 27 in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to keep a daily oil production quota at the level of 30 million barrels, which sent oil prices further down.

Headquartered in Vienna, OPEC includes 12 countries, namely Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Angola. Russia, Mexico, Egypt and Oman are observers at the OPEC.

Within the OPEC, Algeria, Venezuela and Iran have conflicting interests with and Saudi Arabia. The latter is unwilling to give up its market share and is not planning to cut oil production amid the US shale revolution.

On the way to China on January 5, the Venezuelan leader’s plane made a technical stop at Moscow’s Vnukovo-2 airport where Maduro briefly met with Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.

Jacqueline Faria, Venezuelan Minister for Communication and Information, wrote on her Twitter account that Maduro’s visit to Moscow signals “solidarity” with the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the face of destabilizing actions of the US.

In late December, Maduro said Washington is conducting an oil war to destroy Russia and Venezuela.

“A real oil war is underway,” he said. “Its goal is to destroy Russia, to drive Russia into a collapse as a global power …” The current slump in oil prices is also spearheaded at Venezuela, Maduro said.