CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez vowed late Wednesday to pull his country through a dramatic fall in oil prices that threatens its fiscal soundness.
"Many people want oil to keep falling so they can see us fall, but Venezuela won't sink ...," the president said during late night televised remarks as he addressed a group of artists and academics.
Crude prices could keep falling, he said, but he gave no more sense of how far his administration expects them to go.
The Chavez administration has structured a $78.6 billion budget for 2009, assuming an average price for Venezuelan crude of $60 a barrel, slightly lower than the current oil prices.
Venezuela's oil basket closed last week at $81.78 a barrel, but is expected to close this week below $70 a barrel, based on the price movements of the more expensive West Texas Intermediate crude which closed Wednesday at $71 per barrel.
Chavez also insisted that his administration will continue to push for an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' bank that would control oil reserves.
"The Russians already said yes, Iran said yes," Chavez said about the OPEC bank proposal. "Imagine a bank that holds oil reserves," from some of its largest members, the president insisted.
Most recently, Chavez has vowed to move ahead with the project on its own along with other oil producer countries if OPEC as a whole continues to disregard the oil bank idea.
-By Raul Gallegos; Dow Jones Newswires; +58-212-905-6338; raul.gallegos@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-16-08 1126ET
