Venezuela Deputy Sure on Oil Hike Updated 7:40 PM ET March 9, 2000 CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's deputy oil minister said Thursday he is "sure" oil-producing nations will agree later this month on an output hike to reduce soaring international petroleum prices. "There will be an accord," Alvaro Silva said in an interview with The Associated Press and Dow Jones Newswires.

He also said there's a possibility Venezuelan Oil Minister Ali Rodriguez will meet his Saudi Arabian counterpart Ali Naimi before the ministers meeting March 27 OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria.

Silva said OPEC and non-OPEC producers must work to achieve a stable oil price suitable for producers and consumers, but didn't give a price level.

He said both OPEC and non-OPEC producers "share the same concept on stabilization of world oil prices."

"No one wants to return to abrupt price changes, we all agree on that," he added.

"The OPEC body acts like a family," he said. "Sometimes a member of the family has a different opinion but at the end there's unity," he added.

Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico led an effort to cut supplies by about 5 million barrels a day beginning in March 1999 to salvage collapsing oil prices.

Oil prices in the U.S. climbed over $34 a barrel this week, a high not seen since November 1990.

The U.S. government is concerned that high prices and low inventories threaten to feed inflation and provoke supply shortages.

But Silva played down the effects of soaring oil prices on the global economy.

"I want to emphasize that with the current high oil prices, the U.S. economy is booming and the Asian economy is on its way back to recovery," Silva said.

http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000309/19/venezuela-oil

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 09, 2000