www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Depending on if you believe government or opposition estimates, Venezuela is currently producing well over two million barrels of oil per day, with the government putting the figure at 2.6 million and rebel Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executives insisting 2.1 million. 

Although both estimates are still well below output levels of 3.2 million barrels per day before the opposition work stoppage began on December 2, they still represent a huge improvement on mid-December levels of 150,000 barrels per day and show PDVSA has been able to recover production significantly faster than may analysts had expected. 

It had been assumed by many that a recover back to around 1.5 million barrels per day would be quite easy, but due to a lack of experienced personnel several analysts claimed that above that figure a recovery would be very slow as older more complex wells would be harder to get back on line. 

Another important factor is the fact that the recovery has come despite the sacking of around 16,000 of the pre-strike 38,000 workers, as the government seeks to cut the company's overheads and make it more profitable. 

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

During a trip to Bogota Colombia, Venezuela's Foreign (MRE) Minister Roy Chaderton Matos has accused the media of trying to promote an assassination attempt of President Hugo Chavez Frias. According to the Minister evidence exists of such a plan.

"I have here with me a series of evidence in which the Venezuelan and some foreign mass media in the hemisphere have made calls for the assassination of the President of Venezuela."

The Foreign Minister also accused the Venezuelan opposition "supported by the media" of encouraging an attempt on the President's life.

The comments came after Chaderton arrived in Colombia for talks with the region's other Foreign Ministers. During the visit the Minister is also expected to discuss a presidential level summit with Colombian counterpart in a bid to resolve the tensions that have built up of the past few weeks.

osted: Thursday, March 13, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Members of President Hugo Chavez Frias' Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) party are set to hold talks with US Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro tomorrow to discuss various domestic and international concerns.

The meeting was announced by former National Assembly president Willian Lara, who said that the MVR deputies plan to explain to the Ambassador that Venezuela's public powers are entirely autonomous and that they do not answer to the government.

Lara says that this has become necessary as members of his party have "noticed some confusion" on this issue in recent statements made by US State Department officials. "We are very concerned about the repeated statements made by Otto Reich, which are obviously biased and influenced by the interests of Venezuelan opposition groups."

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

According to Venezuelan Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, the government is pleased with Organization of American States (OAS) secretary general Cesar Gaviria's role as a facilitator and is not keen on him becoming more of a mediator. 

"We see him as a facilitator, because mediation introduces a binding element and we don't believe that Venezuela is in that kind of situation."

Rangel went on to say that the Friends of Venezuela group meeting in Brasilia earlier this week had dealt the opposition three separate blows, firstly because its call for Gaviria to become a mediator was refused, secondly the call for a world forum on Venezuela was denied and thirdly President Hugo Chavez Frias was accepted by the group to be a valid interlocutor.

However, government representative Jorge Valero also failed in his main aim to have several other countries added to the current six man group, including France, Russia and some Caribbean countries.

sg.biz.yahoo.com Thursday March 13, 8:45 PM (This article was originally published Wednesday).

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Saudi Arabia remained the top supplier of U.S. imported crude oil in January, as the kingdom boosted supplies to make up for the paralysis of Venezuela's exports.

According to company-level import data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, the U.S. imported 1.820 million barrels a day of Saudi crude, up from 1.815 million barrels a day in December.

Saudi Arabia accounted for 21% of U.S. crude oil imports in January, which totaled 8.551 million barrels a day.

Imports from Venezuela, where the oil industry was crippled by a general strike aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez, fell sharply from December's already low levels to just 390,000 barrels a day, about a quarter of the volume typically imported from the Andean nation.

Venezuela has managed to boost oil output substantially since the general strike ended a month ago.

As reported, Venezuela's crude oil production stood at 2.1 million barrels a day Tuesday, about two-thirds of the country's prestrike output, a former trading manager with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (E.PVZ) told Dow Jones Newswires.

The government puts output at around 2.65 million barrels a day and has lifted the force majeure on crude oil exports.

Crude oil imports from Canada, the No. 2 U.S. supplier, jumped to 1.621 million barrels a day in January from 1.490 million b/d in December. Imports from No. 3 Mexico fell, to 1.566 million b/d from 1.734 million b/d.

Nigeria came in fourth, with 798,000 b/d of crude oil imports, up from 625,000 b/d the month before.

Imports from Iraq also jumped, even as the U.S. prepared for a possible attack on the Persian Gulf country. The U.S. imported 600,000 b/d of crude oil from Iraq in January - about one out of every 14 barrels brought into the U.S. that month - up from 366,000 b/d in December.

Valero Energy (VLO) was the top U.S. importer of Iraqi crude, bringing in 140,000 b/d. ConocoPhillips (COP) was second, with 101,000 b/d.

Third was Atofina, the chemical branch of TotalFinaElf (TOT), which imported 78,000 b/d of Iraqi crude. BP PLC (BP) brought in 62,000 b/d, and Royal Dutch/Shell (RD) unit Motiva Enterprises LLC brought in 65,000 b/d.

Citgo, the U.S. refining and marketing arm of PdVSA, turned to Iraq to make up for some of its lost Venezuelan supply. Citgo brought in 34,000 b/d worth of Iraqi crude in January.

Total U.S. oil imports were down 68,000 b/d from December.

-By Andrew Dowell, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4430; andrew.dowell@dowjones.com