CARCAS, July 13 (Xinhua) - Speculation and oil contracts for the future are the major causes of the current oil price hike, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez said Sunday at the 5th PetroCaribe summit.

    Fernandez said that currently there are 860,000 oil future contracts, which represent 10 times the quantity of oil that is produced every day in the world.

    Fernandez suggested that the PetroCaribe summit and the United Nations create a bloc to deal with the current energy, finance and food crises.

    PetroCaribe is a Caribbean oil alliance with Venezuela to purchase oil on conditions of preferential payment. It was founded on June 29, 2005 with a cooperative agreement signed by 14 countries in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. It now groups 18 Caribbean nations.

    Under the agreement, Venezuela, the 5th largest oil exporter in the world, sells 200,000 barrels of oil per day to Caribbean and Central American countries at flexible credit terms.

    Beneficiaries are allowed to pay half price for oil supply before paying another half in a span of 17 to 25 years with a yearly interest of 1 percent to 5 percent.