Cuba may join OPEC

Via Bloomberg:

Venezuela supports the entry of Brazil and Cuba into the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as their exploration programs are likely to make them exporters, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula said he wanted Brazil to join the group, less than a year after Chavez first joked about the possibility in the wake of an oil find that may be the biggest in the Americas since 1976. State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA agreed a year ago to explore blocks off Cuba.

Chavez, a long-time advocate of higher oil prices, said Venezuela shouldn’t produce too much oil now as it must safeguard resources for the future. He doesn’t plan to reduce oil sales to the U.S., he said. Venezuela sold the least oil in five years to the world’s largest consumer in March.

Abdalla El-Badri, OPEC’s secretary general, will visit Venezuela to discuss “a variety of topics,” Chavez said, without elaborating further.

El Badri will discuss Venezuela’s oil output in a visit to the country, Dow Jones Newswires reported April 21, citing Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez. The topic is a source of contention, as OPEC uses estimates from outside consultants to gauge its members’ production, while Venezuela wants to report its own number.

OPEC published its individual members’ output targets on the Internet in September and then removed them. Venezuela says it produces 3.3 million barrels a day of oil and condensate. Bloomberg estimates crude output at 2.34 million.

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