CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Returning from a 20-day foreign tour,
                 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that his campaign to
                 stabilize the world oil market by lobbying consumer and producer nations to
                 collaborate on prices was a success.

                 After visits to Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Canada and Mexico, Chavez said he
                 had helped forge a consensus on the need for stable oil prices among Organization
                 of Petroleum Exporting Countries, non-OPEC producers and consumer countries.

                 "We do not want oil prices to shoot into the clouds, nor do we want them to
                 plummet to the ground," Chavez said.

                 Oil prices have dropped by 25 percent since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the
                 United States. During his trip, Chavez urged OPEC nations and non-OPEC
                 producers Russia, Canada and Mexico to collectively cut production by 1 million
                 barrels a day.

                 Venezuelan oil currently sells for less than $17 a barrel. In Mexico, Chavez said that
                 if all producers exported to their capacity, prices could slide to $8 a barrel, costing
                 OPEC countries $70 billion a year and non-OPEC countries $180 billion.

                 OPEC has an agreed-upon production level of 23.2 million barrels a day. It will
                 address the issue at a Nov. 14 meeting in Vienna, Austria.

                 Chavez said he told officials of consumer nations at the Paris-based International
                 Energy Agency that Venezuela wasn't seeking to dramatically raise prices -- but that
                 producers could ill -afford a plunge similar to what happened in 1997 and 1998
                 when some oil prices fell to $7 a barrel.

                 Chavez said that he and fellow OPEC leaders succeeded in committing cartel
                 members to comply with their production quotas _ a significant step toward raising
                 prices. And he said that Russia, Mexico and Canada shared OPEC's goal of "saving
                 petroleum prices."

                 Venezuela depends on oil for 40 percent of government revenues and 70 percent of
                 exports.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.