Venezuela wants to avoid U.S. oil cutoff

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela wants to avoid cutting off oil supplies to the United States because it would be costly to the OPEC nation, a senior Venezuelan oil official said Tuesday.

He spoke a day after world oil prices rose following a threat from President Hugo Chavez to stop sending oil to the United States over a legal dispute with U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil.


The United States is Venezuela’s top energy customer. Venezuela is the No. 4 oil exporter to America.

Halting supplies is always “feasible” but would hurt the two nations’ economies, said Bernard Mommer, a Venezuelan official who was a top negotiator in a nationalization drive last year that forced Exxon to leave the country.

Reuters