Venezuelan leader calls for “fair oil prices”

Venezuelan leader calls for “fair oil prices”

Chavez, whose government has been a longtime price hawk among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said that he would discuss oil prices when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

Chavez suggested at an OPEC meeting in Venezuela last month that the oil cartel trim production and establish a minimum price of US$50 (euro40) a barrel.

He added that an appropriate upper-end for prices would be "infinity.''

Oil prices cruised almost US$1 higher on Wednesday to US$74.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange amid ongoing Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and after U.S. government data showed a large drop in gasoline supplies, according to the AP.