CARACAS, (Reuters) - Venezuela expects 2008 global oil prices will remain similar to the record prices seen this year, oil minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday.

"We expect that the (global) market will maintain the same prices that we have seen this year," Ramirez told reporters.

"Probably, if there is no geopolitical tension like what we have seen recently, prices should be around $100 per barrel," he said. "We believe this shows there have been structural changes in the market."

Ramirez spoke to reporters after voting in Sunday's referendum aimed at formalizing socialism as the OPEC-member country's economic system and allowing anti-American firebrand President Hugo Chavez to run indefinitely for reelection.

Chavez has proposed that OPEC offer low-cost oil to poor countries and stabilize oil prices around $100 per barrel.

He threatened over the weekend to cut oil sales to the United States if the US government meddles in Sunday's vote.