Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he will meet with Opec secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo tomorrow in Caracas to discuss strategies to stabilize world oil prices and strengthen Opec's unity.
"We're going to work on refining the agreement that all Opec and non-Opec producers must sign at the end of this month in order to stabilize the oil price in an important and definite way," Maduro said during a new weekly music program on state-run radio that he hosts from the presidential palace.
Maduro said his meeting tomorrow with Barkindo will further consolidate Opec's alliances with Russia, Azerbaijan and other non-Opec producers.
"Our mission is a new world oil alliance" of Opec and non-Opec producers, Maduro said.
The meeting precedes Opec's 21 November technical meeting and the group´s 30 November ministerial meeting in Vienna where the group is supposed to define and implement a September agreement to restrain output.
Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih has stressed a need to follow through on a preliminary agreement reached in Algiers in September to curb output to 32.5mn-33mn b/d.
Venezuela is aggressively promoting a broad agreement to freeze output, with a price target of $70/bl.
WTI futures rose sharply today to settle above $45/bl amid signs of further supply disruptions in Nigeria and expectations that Opec could soon finalize an agreement.
The Maduro government's 2017 budget is based on a projected oil price of $30/bl, or just over $4/bl below Venezuela's current year to date average export price of $34.08/bl as of 11 November.

