By IANS
Lisbon : Oil-rich Venezuela has said it is ready to guarantee uninterrupted supply of crude and natural gas to Europe for the next three decades, Spanish news agency EFE reported Wednesday.
“Venezuela is ready to guarantee supply stability and (allow) European firms to be able to produce petroleum in Venezuela that ensures the economic growth of Europe,” Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the Lisbon Energy Forum 2007.
The minister, who is also the president of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, sought to reassure the 27-member European Union, which imports half the petroleum it consumes from Venezuela and is nervous in the face of possible supply interruptions.
“We want the countries of Europe to know that during the next 25 or 30 years they will have a guaranteed supply,” said Ramirez, who criticised the consuming countries for the instability they are creating in petroleum-supplying regions.
He said that PDVSA’s plans are based on “diversification” and that they foresee opening three refineries in China, whose own state oil enterprise plans to start production in Venezuela.
The diversification plan includes Europe, Ramirez said.
Currently, the biggest customer of Venezuela for oil is the United States, which does not have the best of relations with the country’s President Hugo Chavez.
While pledging not to interrupt supplies to the United States except in the case of a possible US “aggression,” Venezuela makes no secret of its desire to find other buyers for its oil and natural gas.
The minister said in Lisbon that there would be no security in oil and gas supplies without stability in the producing countries.
“One can’t ask for supply security if the consuming countries are establishing political instability,” said the minister, recalling the invasion of Iraq, the current tension between Washington and Tehran and the abortive April 2002 coup in his own country, which the Chavez government says was instigated by the US.
The Bush administration denies the charge.
Ramirez said he favoured seeking “equilibrium, equality, justice and fair treatment” between the countries that produce and consume fossil fuels.
PDVSA signed an agreement with Portugal’s Galp Energia Tuesday to cooperate in exploitation, production and supply of petroleum in Venezuela, a move that foreshadows expanding the alliance to supply — over the long term — 30 percent of Portugal’s petroleum needs.