(Updates to add comment by King Abdullah)
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said 100 usd is 'a fair price' for a barrel of oil, adding prices could rise as high as 200 usd if the US continues to threaten OPEC members such as Iran.
He said in his speech to the Third OPEC Summit in Riyadh that '100 usd is a just price, it is a fair price'.
'If the US is crazy enough to invade iran or to threaten Venezuela, then the price of oil will not be 100 usd, it will be 200 usd,' he said in his speech to dignatories at the inaugural session of the summit, attended by heads of all member states.
'(The opec states) need stability, we need to know the world powers do not expect us to guarantee regular supply and stqbility of prices without anything in return.'
Speaking shortly after Chavez, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said OPEC has always been a fair organisation.
King Abdullah said: 'If we were to factor in fluctuation and inflation it would not have reached its actual price of the 1980s.'
Meanwhile, Chavez said: 'OPEC must change and become a much stronger player in the geopolitical and geo-economic domains.
'In the years ahead OPEC should set itself up as an active political agent,' he added.
Chavez also said Venezuela is proposing the setting up of an OPEC bank, so the cartel can have a bigger say in the financial markets and help redistribute wealth to the underprivileged. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com am/am COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.