CARACAS--Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi will make a
rare trip this week to Venezuela, according to people familiar with
the matter, as the South American nation's struggling economy
endures a sustained drop in oil prices.
Mr. al-Naimi will hold a private meeting on Wednesday with
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramírez, who until recently
served as the country's powerful oil czar and head of state energy
giant Petróleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, diplomats said. The meeting
will take place on the Caribbean resort island of Margarita where
Venezuela is hosting a climate conference, the diplomats added.
Venezuela last month said it wanted to call for a meeting of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to discuss the
steep drop in the price of the commodity that accounts for 96% of
the country's exports.
The price decline adds a new layer of discomfort for President
Nicolás Maduro, whose popularity has been eroded by a weak economy
hit by dollar shortages that have forced the government to cut back
on imports by a third in the last two years.
Venezuela has had to ration scarce greenbacks and has billions
of dollars in unpaid debts with private companies that service its
economy, ranging from airlines to food importers to
oilfield-service providers. Many companies have cut back on
business activity resulting in chronic shortages of basic goods
such as cooking oil and car batteries, in a country that relies on
imports for some three-quarters of what it consumes.
The situation has also led Wall Street analysts to speculate
whether Venezuela has enough hard currency to pay off holders of
its sovereign and PdVSA bonds. Venezuelan officials say that the
country has the resources to meet all of its obligations.
The World Bank expects Venezuela's economy to contract by 3%
this year, lagging the rest of the region.
Write to Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com
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