Vienna: Bolivia would like to become a member of the powerful OPEC oil cartel, Bolivian President Evo Morales said as he continued a charm offensive at an EU-Latin American summit.
"I would like my country to be part of OPEC," Morales said yesterday at the summit in Vienna, which he had shocked Thursday by saying that his government would not compensate foreign firms for assets they might lose after Bolivia nationalized its oil and gas resources.
Morales has since tried to strike a more reasonable note.
About joining the 11-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the world's most powerful oil cartel, Morales told reporters: "It is a desire. Who wouldn't like to be one of those countries?"
Bolivia is the second major producer of natural gas in Latin America but is much less influential as an oil producer, producing around a modest 40,000 barrels per day (bpd).
OPEC-member Venezuela is Latin America's main oil producer, with an output of over two million bpd.
Morales said Bolivia was "recovering" the country's natural resources following his May 1 decree nationalizing Bolivia's energy industry, a move that has worried foreign energy producers in the country.
"How can we enter OPEC if we do not control our natural resources?" Morales asked rhetorically.
Left-winger Morales, elected in December as his country's first indigenous leader, added that "OPEC countries have great interest in talking bilaterally" to his government.
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