Venezuelan oil prices drop below $40
Sunday, 18 January 2015
CARACAS, Jan 17 (Xinhua): Venezuelan crude oil prices continued to drop, ending the week at a five-year low of 39.19 US dollars per barrel, compared with 42.44 dollars a week ago, the Ministry of Oil and Mining said Friday.
The drop in oil prices is causing severe economic losses for Venezuela, which relies heavily on oil sales. Every dollar decrease in oil price represents some 700 million US dollars lost in revenue. Since June 2014, Venezuelan oil prices have dropped by more than 60 per cent.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is touring five members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to push for output reduction so as to stabilize prices.