MEXICO CITY, January 11 (Sputnik) — The authorities of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have agreed to cooperate on restoring the plummeting oil prices, Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres said Sunday.
"Excellent meeting with important results. We agreed to work to restore the market and oil prices," Torres said on his Twitter account, following a meeting between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi.
Excelente reunión con importantes resultados. Acordamos trabajar para recuperar mercado y precios del petróleo pic.twitter.com/fXjKBXGawW — Rodolfo Marco Torres (@RMarcoTorres) January 11, 2015
Maduro is currently on tour throughout a number of oil-producing countries in a bid to cut production and boost oil prices. The president has already visited Iran and is set to continue his travel to Qatar and Algeria.
© Flickr/ alex.ch OPEC Likely to Maintain Oil Levels, Crude Prices to Continue Free Fall: UBS Oil prices have been cut in more than half since the summer of 2014 due to oversupply in the market, with Brent crude futures, reaching a five-year low at under $50 per barrel on January 5.
A sharp decline was noted after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose 12 member states account for some 40 percent of world oil output, decided not to cut production at its November summit.
During Maduro's visit to Iran last week, the Venezuelan president and and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, whose country is also heavily dependent on oil prices, agreed to cooperate within OPEC to reverse the price downfall.