Chavez: Oil price will hit $200 if Iran attacked

Oil could more than double in price if the US attacks Iran, warned Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez late on Tuesday, as tensions continue to escalate between Washington and Tehran. 

"If the empire (the US) decides to invade Iran, surely oil prices could go as high as $200 a barrel," Chavez told reporters in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, quoted the International Herald Tribune.

The comments come as rhetoric between the Islamic republic and the US has intensified in recent weeks concerning the intentions of Iran's controversial nuclear program. 

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly defended his nation's sovereign right to pursue nuclear power for peaceful purposes while Bush has called for tougher action from the international community.

"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Bush told reporters last month.

"So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," he said. 
Ahmandinejad called Bush's rhetoric a "barrier to peace."

Iran is a key oil producer, exporting about 2.5 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Speaking ahead of the coming OPEC summit this weekend, Chavez also said he would also propose the organization abandon the widely used West Texas Intermediate (WTI) metric for measuring the price of oil.

The WTI metric is "a very, very, very small proportion if we compare it to the global daily production of oil . . . so it is not the best indicator, Chavez said, although he did not offer an alternative measurement, saying that was up to OPEC to determine.

In addition, Chavez said he would like to see the OPEC take a more active role in geopolitics, and finance social development programs for poorer countries such as funding for healthcare, education and housing.

The oil cartel should "go beyond just energy, it should have the appearance of politics - even more so given the context in which this summit will take place," he said. 

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