Chavez proposed minimum of $50 on crude - Yahoo! News: "CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday said there is an excess of oil on the world market and proposed a minimum price for crude at $50 a barrel. OPEC members have no intention of increasing their oil production despite demands from a number of industrialized nations, Chavez said as he spoke at the group's meeting in Caracas.
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'There is enough oil on the market. We even believe there is an excess of oil on the market,' Chavez said.
'We'll have to be very watchful,' he said. '$50 is a fair price, but as a minimum. That's how we see it.'
Chavez defended the role the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plays in the world and said its members have worked to give stability to oil prices even as the U.S. moved to invade Iraq and continues to threaten Iran and Venezuela.
'We had price bands for almost three years but that went down in history,' he said, referring to the former price range of $22-$28 a barrel that OPEC targeted several years ago. 'If we talked about a band nowadays, the lower level would be $50 and the ceiling would be infinity.'
The Venezuelan president has long championed the idea of keeping oil prices high within OPEC. For the last two meetings Venezuela has called on member countries to cut production, but other countries have been unwilling."