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Maduro says Venezuela will keep campaigning until oil prices rebound to $100 per barrel

28 November 2014 11:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA-Economics. Venezuela will keep campaigning until oil prices rebound to $100 per barrel, president Nicolas Maduro said Thursday night after OPEC refused to cut output, as the cash-strapped South American country had aggressively pushed for, Voice of America reported.

Saudi Arabia blocked calls from poorer members of the OPEC oil exporter group for production cuts to arrest a slide in global prices, sending benchmark crude plunging to a fresh four-year low of around $71.25.

The decision is a blow to Venezuela's flailing economy, widely believed to be in recession, and also highlights the country's diminished influence in OPEC, which it helped found.

But Maduro said the country with the world's largest crude reserves is undeterred.

“For now, it wasn't possible to achieve the proposal we supported with various OPEC members. There was not a consensus to make an important cutback to oil production to recuperate the markets, but above all, to recuperate the price of oil,” he said at a military event, estimating the oil price slump had curbed Venezuela's revenues by up to 40 percent.

Despite concerns over the national budget, Maduro assured citizens that their basic needs will still be covered.

“If we had to reduce something in the budget, we would cut sumptuary costs, we would cut our own salary as high officials, but we will never cut even a bolivar (Venezuela's currency) from money that goes toward education, food, housing... the missions of our people,” he said.