Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez opened an OPEC summit on Saturday with a chilling warning about 200-dollar oil if the United States attacks Iran in a speech that also urged the cartel to be more political.
But internal divisions about the role of the oil exporters' group were highlighted when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, OPEC kingpin and key US regional ally, sounded a moderate note, saying oil "must not become an instrument for conflict."
Chavez, a fiery leftist and fiercely anti-US leader, warned that crude prices could double from their current already-record level of near 100 dollars a barrel if Washington attacked Iran or launched action against Venezuela.
"If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil won't just reach 100 dollars, but even 200 dollars," he said.
Couldn't happen. Period. The global economy would crash in horrific fashion if oil even began to approached $200 a barrel, thus severely retarding demand, thus severely crashing the oil market. I get the feeling that Chavez is hoping for $200 a barrel, but he really shouldn't. $200 a barrel would signal an economic collapse that would remove his lever of power in Venezuela-oil wealth.
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