Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is set to travel to Saudi Arabia and two other OPEC member countries to discuss the drop in oil prices following his current visit to China, the government in Caracas said this week.

News of Mr. Maduro's trip comes amid a continuing slide in global oil prices. Brent crude earlier Wednesday fell briefly below $50 a barrel, its lowest level in five-and-a-half years, before recovering later in the day.

Oil's fall is causing severe problems for producing countries like Venezuela which rely heavily on oil revenues to fund government spending. Venezuela would need oil to average around $117.5 a barrel this year to balance its budget, according to Deutsche Bank estimates.

In a statement posted on its Twitter account, Venezuela's information minister Jacqueline Faria said Mr. Maduro was to travel to Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and to Iran and Algeria. State news agency AVN said he would discuss falling oil prices.

Venezuela proposed a cut in OPEC's production ceiling to bolster oil prices at the group's last meeting in November. But it was overruled by Saudi Arabia, which convinced other members of OPEC that the grouping should defend its market share against U.S. shale-oil producers.

(Kejal Vyas in Caracas contributed to this report.)

Write to Benoit Faucon benoit.faucon@wsj.com

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