Venezuela slams U.S. anti-OPEC ruling as «ludicrous»

Oil exporter Venezuela on Wednesday lambasted a U.S. legal ruling barring the OPEC oil cartel from fixing prices as a "ludicrous decision".
Energy and Mines Minister Alvaro Silva said the decision by an Alabama court last month was contrary to legal precedent in the United States.

"International organizations and sovereign states cannot be judged in the jurisdictions of other countries and that has been a precedent in North American law," Silva told reporters after a press conference.

"This decision by a North American court is absolutely ludicrous in that sense," he added.

The Alabama court on March 21 ruled in favor of a gasoline retailer, barring the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) from entering agreements to set production volumes and prices.

Venezuela and 10 other OPEC members made successive cuts in production since 1998 that pushed crude oil prices to their high level since the 1991 Gulf War and lifted U.S. gasoline pump prices to record highs.

The ruling is symbolic as federal law prevents OPEC, as well as other sovereign nations, from being sued.

However, that would change under legislation introduced last month in the U.S. Senate to give U.S. anti-trust regulators authority to sue OPEC for fixing prices and setting production levels for crude oil.

The bill puts pressure on OPEC not to restrict oil supplies by giving the U.S. government the legal authority to bring an antitrust enforcement action against foreign states engaging in anti-competitive conduct with regard to oil and other petroleum products.

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