Cheap Oil - Gone Forever?

(Thanks to Mick Gallagher.)

CHEAP OIL-- GONE FOREVER?

Chavez rules out return to cheap oil
By Meirion Jones
Producer, BBC Newsnight

If you thought high oil prices were just a blip think again. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ruled out any return to the era of cheap oil.

In an interview with BBC Newsnight's Greg Palast, Mr Chavez - who is due to host the Opec meeting on 1 June in Caracas - said he would ask the oil cartel to set $50 a barrel as the long term level. During the 1990s the price of oil had hovered around the $20 mark falling low as $10 a barrel in early 1999. [But dubya changed that for his rich oil-buddies.]

"We're trying to find an equilibrium. The price of oil could remain at the low level of $50. That's a fair price it's not a high price," Mr Chavez said.

He will have added clout at this Opec meeting.

Analysis by the US Department of Energy (DoE)-- seen by Newsnight-- shows that, at $50 a barrel, Venezuela, not Saudi Arabia, will have the biggest oil reserves in Opec.

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