Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramírez reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in possession of the evidence attesting to the sale by Barbados of licenses for oil drilling in Venezuelan maritime areas.

"We took the official letter to the appropriate channels; the Foreign Ministry is working on it. This has been the case in the past, where countries, well, awarded licenses for areas that are beyond their jurisdiction and by talking, directly speaking, things are eventually placed where they should be," said the official.

Prices are the result of speculation
Ramírez said that high oil prices are due to speculation and thinks that increasing the output "would be a mistake."

"Oil prices have dropped 20 dollars over the past few days; this shows that it is not a question of volumes, but speculation. Such a swing in such a short time has nothing to do with production," Ramírez told reporters, AP quoted.

"Flooding the market with oil would be a mistake; inventories would raise and prices would collapse as in the nineties," he added.