Chavez Says Oil Between $80 and $90 Is `Sufficient'

By Matthew Walter

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in the Americas, will remain solvent as long as oil prices hold between $80 and $90 a barrel, President Hugo Chavez said.

The surge in oil prices in the first half of this year was ``irrational,'' Chavez said today in comments broadcast by state television. Since touching a record $147.27 a barrel in July, oil prices have plunged more than 50 percent.

``If the price of oil stabilizes between $80 and $90, that's more than sufficient,'' he said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will likely agree to cut production at its meeting Oct. 24 in a bid to halt the decline in prices, Venezuelan Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said yesterday.

Crude oil for November delivery rose $2, or 2.9 percent, to settle at $71.85 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, amid expectations OPEC decide to cut output.

Chavez said the South American country is prepared to weather the recent drop in oil prices with international reserves of almost $40 billion, a $12 billion development fund created with China to finance investment projects in Venezuela, and savings accumulated in government funds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Walter in Caracas at mwalter4@bloomberg.net.