Venezuela oil production falls sharply
Venezuela oil production falls sharply
CARACAS, Venezuela
OCT. 11 1:04 P.M. ET
Venezuela's crude oil production fell sharply during 2002 and 2003 due to an extended strike at the state petroleum company, according to a government report filed to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.
Venezuela's average crude output slipped 21 percent over the two years affected by the strike, state-run Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., PDVSA, said in the report delivered to the SEC on Oct. 7, over two years behind schedule. PDVSA blamed the delays on strikers, who are accused of destroying accounting and sales.
Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the U.S. market. PDVSA wholly owns Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corp., which refines and markets Venezuelan crude, supplying gasoline to 14,000 U.S. retail outlets.
The country's oil industry was crippled in December 2002 when about half of PDVSA's staff joined a general strike in an effort to force President Hugo Chavez to resign. Loyalists at the company eventually resumed oil production in February 2003.
Production averaged 3.09 million barrels a day in 2001 before the strike and a year unaffected by other major production outages.
That slipped by 14 percent to 2.66 million barrels a day in 2002 and a further 7 percent to 2.45 million barrels a day in 2001, according to the report filed to the SEC.
PDVSA says the strike cost US$12.7 billion (euro10.4 billion) in lost oil sales alone.
It claims it has fully recovered from the strike, and that Venezuela is now producing 3.2 million barrels per day. Analysts put the figure much lower at 2.6 to 2.7 million barrels per day, saying PDVSA has not invested enough to fully recover output lost during the strike.
Including natural gas and natural gasoline, Venezuela produced a total of 3.19 million barrels a day in 2003, down from 3.97 million barrels a day in 2001.
PDVSA still has to submit its 2004 financial report to the SEC
CARACAS, Venezuela
OCT. 11 1:04 P.M. ET
Venezuela's crude oil production fell sharply during 2002 and 2003 due to an extended strike at the state petroleum company, according to a government report filed to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.
Venezuela's average crude output slipped 21 percent over the two years affected by the strike, state-run Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., PDVSA, said in the report delivered to the SEC on Oct. 7, over two years behind schedule. PDVSA blamed the delays on strikers, who are accused of destroying accounting and sales.
Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the U.S. market. PDVSA wholly owns Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corp., which refines and markets Venezuelan crude, supplying gasoline to 14,000 U.S. retail outlets.
The country's oil industry was crippled in December 2002 when about half of PDVSA's staff joined a general strike in an effort to force President Hugo Chavez to resign. Loyalists at the company eventually resumed oil production in February 2003.
Production averaged 3.09 million barrels a day in 2001 before the strike and a year unaffected by other major production outages.
That slipped by 14 percent to 2.66 million barrels a day in 2002 and a further 7 percent to 2.45 million barrels a day in 2001, according to the report filed to the SEC.
PDVSA says the strike cost US$12.7 billion (euro10.4 billion) in lost oil sales alone.
It claims it has fully recovered from the strike, and that Venezuela is now producing 3.2 million barrels per day. Analysts put the figure much lower at 2.6 to 2.7 million barrels per day, saying PDVSA has not invested enough to fully recover output lost during the strike.
Including natural gas and natural gasoline, Venezuela produced a total of 3.19 million barrels a day in 2003, down from 3.97 million barrels a day in 2001.
PDVSA still has to submit its 2004 financial report to the SEC
posted by Marcel at 3:51 PM
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