Venezuela President, Hugo Chávez, called this Friday, November 9, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, "oil magnate" and proposed the creation of Petroamazonia (PetroAmazon) a company that would join Brazil's Petrobras and Venezuelan PDV (Petroleos de Venezuela).
Chávez banter and proposal happened during a speech at the XVII Ibero-American Summit being held in Santiago, capital of Chile.
"Lula," said the Venezuelan president, "now that you are an oil magnate, that Brazil has so much oil, I propose that we join forcer in these cooperation mechanisms with the countries that do not have oil, with the countries that cannot pay US$ 100 a barrel."
Chávez indicated that he would like to see Brazil also selling its oil at subsidized prices to poorer nations at up to 70% below market price.
During his 25-minute speech, Venezuela's president made several other ironical references to Brazil's announcement that it has discovered new oil fields, enough to become a top-ten oil exporter at least as big as Venezuela.
"Brazil now can get into OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) with this large amount it got," said Chávez. "If this is really true. Let's hope it is." he added.
Brazil's special advisor to the Presidency for International Subjects, Marco Aurélio Garcia, said that the creation of a company to sell subsidized oil is not being discussed by the Brazilian government. "This makes no sense," he stated.
For Garcia. the Venezuelan president's comments were a funny and pleasant way to mention Brazil's news oil findings. He added that Brazil even with a larger oil reserve will not be Venezuela's competitor in the petroleum field.
