Global energy crisis just around the corner, warns Chavez

THE world is about to face an energy crisis because the demand for oil keeps growing even though production is already at its maximum, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday.

Mr Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest crude oil exporter, said that all OPEC members were "producing at full steam".

"There's a worldwide energy crisis around the corner," Mr Chavez told reporters at the end of the first Summit of South American-Arab Countries in Brazil.