CARACAS (AFP) ― Venezuela has called for a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries to address the slide in oil prices, which is adding to the woes facing President Nicolas Maduro’s cash-strapped government.

With the price of Brent crude at less than $80 a barrel, a drop of more than 25 percent since June, Venezuela and many other major oil producers are feeling the pinch.

“We have coordinated a special meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries to be held very soon to take decisions in defense of oil and oil prices and the world oil market,” Maduro said Monday in a televised address.

“We are defending our industry, our oil, our life.”

He did not give details on when or where the meeting would take place.

Venezuela depends on crude exports for 96 percent of its foreign currency, and the price crunch has added to the headaches of a government already struggling to halt rampant inflation and ease severe shortages of the food and medicine it relies on oil money to import.

Venezuela and Ecuador have called publicly for OPEC, the 12-member cartel of oil-producing countries, to implement a production cut in a bid to prop up prices.

But OPEC nations, which hold their next meeting on Nov. 27 in Vienna, are divided on reducing output.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top producer, has reduced prices on crude exports to the U.S. in a move seen by some analysts as an effort to maintain market share as it faces competition from rising shale oil production in the United States.

The U.S. boom in oil extracted from shale rock has helped create a global supply glut and lower prices.

The U.S. pumped 8.8 million barrels of crude a day in September, putting it among the world’s top producers.

Its output has risen nearly 60 percent since 2008.

Maduro said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez was touring various oil-producing countries encouraging their governments to take action to increase prices.

His tour includes Algeria, Qatar, Iran and non-OPEC member Russia.

Maduro highlighted Russia, whose relations with the U.S. are deeply frayed over the crisis in Ukraine, in announcing his plans for the meeting.

He said he had taken the measure “because of our extraordinary relations with Russia and all the OPEC and non-OPEC countries.”

He accused the U.S. of “inundating” the market with oil in a bid “to hurt Russia and collaterally hurt us as major producers.”

Venezuelan oil analyst Luis Oliveros said OPEC was unlikely to make significant production cuts despite demands from Venezuela and other members including Ecuador.

“Who’s really ready to reduce production?” said Oliveros, an economist at Caracas Metropolitan University.

“Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are the most important countries that could slow production, but it would be maybe 400,000 or 500,000 barrels a day. That doesn’t help,” he told AFP.