Prime Minister Samuel Hinds is in Venezuela at the fifth PetroCaribe Summit of Heads of State, which opens in Maracaibo today.
According to the Government Information Agency (GINA) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will address the summit at which some Caricom Heads of Government will be present.

The summit follows on the discussions at a meeting held in Cuba in December 2007 and is expected to explore methods of supplying stability and energy security for member states.

PetroCaribe distributes about 140,000 barrels of oil daily to Caribbean countries, which include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. According to the agreement, they are given up to 25 years to repay with one per cent interest.

According to GINA, President Chavez described PetroCaribe, as a resolution of unbalanced access to energy resources through “equitable and just exchanges”.
Prime Minister Hinds participated in the August 2007 summit in Venezuela which he said facilitated discussions on shipping and storage of PetroCaribe investments, and possibilities for utilising Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) among other initiatives. The possibility of constructing gas pipelines through Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana was also proposed.

PetroCaribe is a Venezuelan initiative in response to the rising oil prices and Guyana along with 12 Caricom member states, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, signed on at the first regional summit in Puerto La Cruz in 2005, GINA added.