Opec suffers internal division as the market slumps

Venezuela calls to cut supply and hike prices, but Saudi Arabia is sticking with its plan

With his country's economy in freefall and worried about elections on 6 December, Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro needed some help from Opec. Eighteen months into the oil price slump, it was time for the group to cut supply and raise the price, he declared during a four-hour television broadcast on 2 December. "The hour has come to put the oil market in order."  Maduro and his oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, hatched a plan for Opec's 4 December meeting in Vienna. Production would be cut by 5%, equivalent to about 1.6 million barrels a day (b/d) - enough to end the relentless daily build in global stocks and spark a recovery, Venezuela had hoped. Algeria, Ecuador, Iran and Iraq - Opec's