Dear Editor: This is in response to Oscar Heck's latest article <a href=www.vheadline.com>"Where did the money go? Hummm … Let’s see, 18,000 x US$10,000. (Benefits?)"

This is simply "yellow journalism," period! In order to make a point, Mr. Heck engages himself in "selective journalism." His disdain for PDVSA former employees is so obvious that he doesn't even try to hide it.

I don't care if an employee gets paid a high salary as long as he produces, i.e., if his productivity is high. According to some analysts, PDVSA had one of the lowest costs per barrel of oil produced in the world (don't quote me on that but this information comes from PDVSA and foreign experts). Yes, it may even be true that they were being paid high salaries but it is also true that they were also producing at higher levels of productivity.

Do you know how much it costs PDVSA to produce a barrel of oil? Compare this to companies in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia, etc. I would like for Mr. Heck to compare PDVSA productivity versus Mr. Chavez government's productivity or versus any "gobernacion, alcaldia o ministerio's" productivity! How about the productivity of Plan Bolivar 2000?

If you are going to make an analysis of the PDVSA situation or if you are going to criticize PDVSA's employees' salaries, do your homework first! Hint: start with the word "productivity" ... don't just quote some "imaginary" Venezuelan with some complains about huge salaries in PDVSA ... don't be so simplistic!

And please, don't even suggest that anybody can do the job of 5 people in PDVSA. ("....Give me a break! I tell you ... I could do the job that 5 people would do in PDVSA-Caracas."). What an ignorant statement! Your thoughts are guided by hate!

Granted, I can accept that there were irregularities in PDVSA, and that there were some employees that were being paid huge salaries and benefits. But this is also true of almost all public institution in Venezuela? Irregularities occur all across the federal government in Venezuela. Tell me of any "ministerio, alcaldia, o gobernacion" free of irregularities and corruption? At least, in the PDVSA case, they were "producing results."

If PDVSA has the means to send some of its employees overseas to study or work, why not?

The survival of an oil company (or for that matter, of any company) depends on having a workforce well-prepared, well-educated. To do this, successful companies understand that they have to pay "top dollars" to send employees to the best universities or learning institutions. Unfortunately, the majority of these institutions are overseas ... so, if you are PDVSA, what do you do?

It seems to me that Mr. Heck feels some "pleasure" by bringing down PDVSA former employees! His article expresses certain degree of "satisfaction" knowing that 18,000 people are out of work. What a pity!

International Gas and Oil Players Meet in Ufa to Discuss Future of Industry

Posted by click at 6:02 AM Story Archive May 28, 2003 (Page 5 of 6)

Adamant: Hardest metal

rosbaltnews.com Rosbalt, 21/05/2003, 18:05

UFA, May 21. The fourth international congress of oil and gas industrialists opened in Ufa on May 21. According to Rosbalt more than 1.5 thousand people are participating in the congress including representatives of Russia's largest companies - Transneft President Semyon Vainshtok, Transneftproduct President Sergey Maslov, Yukos First Vice President Leonid Filimonov and Rosneft Vice President Alexey Kuznetsov. Moreover, representatives from the CIS fuel and energy complex and abroad, 150 members of official delegations, more than 100 representatives of scientific circles and also diplomatic missions of Great Britain, Venezuela, Libya, Ukraine and Belarus will be present at the congress.

The congress will be conducted in two rounds. On May 21 participants will conduct sectional conferences on eight squares of Ufa. The primary themes of discussion will include the increase in the effectiveness of extraction of oil and gas deposits, provision of reliability and security of objects of pipeline transportation of hydrocarbon raw material, perspectives of oil refinement and petrochemistry, new geophysical technology, paths and perspectives of increased effectiveness of functioning and development of fuel and energy complex and science and education in the oil and gas complex. On May 22 a planning session entitled 'oil and gas complex of Russia - strategies of development' will take place in the Bashkiria government assembly building. Presumably, 18 participants will present reports including State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Victor Kalyuzhny, Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Stanev, Deputy Natural Resources Minister Pyotr Sadovnik and others.

Proposals will be drawn up from work done by the congress and sent to the Russian government, State Duma, Natural Resources and Energy Ministries and others.

CVG Orinoco Paper Mill JV to process 300,000 tonnes of Venezuelan newsprint

Posted by click at 6:00 AM in Political Vendetta

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 By: David Coleman

Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) executives have signed a joint venture between subsidiaries Proforca and Serfoca forming the Orinoco Paper Mill (OPM) to produce some 300,000 metric tonnes of Venezuelan newsprint for domestic and continental sales.

OPM is designed to begin operations within the next 120 days in the industrial zone at Macapaima in eastern Anzoategui State. Announcing the JV, CVG president, Major General (ret.) Francisco Rangel Gomez stressed the importance of the project which he says will form "a vital part of regional development on the northern shores of the Rio Orinoco" and is seen as a principal objective of the State heavy industry conglomerate's expansion.

The new CVG newsprint unit will not only allow for the development of regional Venezuelan forestry activities but will represent an annual saving of 146 metric tonnes of newsprint which have hitherto been imported from abroad using much-needed foreign currency. Recently implemented foreign exchange controls will encourage Venezuela's predominantly opposition-controlled print media to "buy domestic" and will substantially seal-off yet another mechanism by which Colombian drug cartels launder their North American earnings.

“The paper mill will have a 300,000 tonnes/year production capacity to satisfy not only local (Venezuelan) demand but also allow us to ship newsprint all across Latin America where there's an increase of 5% in newsprint consumption projected over the next 12 months ... Orinoco Paper Mill has been guaranteed supplies of Caribbean pine lumber from a designated 144,686 hectares (357,527 acres) of current forestry cultivation by CVG-Proforca."

Rangel Gomez says the pulp & paper production plan aims to create 6,000 new jobs ... 3,000 in construction and another 3,000 in direct and indirect jobs associated with manufacturing processes.

Serfoca general manager Urbicio Velazquez told reporters that the JV is seeking finance from the World Bank and Nordic Invests Bank of Finland for $650 million in short-term loans while the CVG is contributing the physical real estate and studying procurement of necessary heavy machinery for mill operations ... initial construction work will cost $6 million while associated public works and infrastructure will cost a further $92 million aimed at closing the financing by year's end 2003.

May 2003
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31
April				June