Chavez rattles Uncle Sam by suggesting selling his oil in Euros at OPEC.

Bloomberg reports that President Chavez Chavez of Venezuela said at the Caracas OPEC conference today that he favors selling oil in Euros instead of U.S. dollars, supporting an Iranian proposal. OPEC President Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigeria's oil minister, said there was no formal proposal in today's meeting to sell OPEC oil in euros.(Pic Raul Ramirez, Venezuelan Oil Minister in Caracas today)

OPEC, producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, agreed to keep production quotas unchanged at a record high 28 million barrels a day in an effort to ease prices, although many commentators think this figure is 2 Mn BPD below actual output.

Oil prices are supported more by concern about possible supply interruptions, than any other factor, United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohamed al-Hamli said today at the group's meeting in Caracas. AS international demand grows, and shows no sign of slackening, the pressure will remain upward on prices.

"The floor to oil prices should be $50 a barrel, and there should be no ceiling,'' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in a speech today. "A floor of $50 is a just price."

Iraq and Kuwait's oil ministers did not attend the OPEC meeting in Caracas and Iran's oil minister, Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, chaired a monitoring committee of OPEC members in Caracas. It was reported that Hamaneh was instructed to deliver a message from Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but details were not available.