Venezuela strike altering relationship-US source

Reuters, 01.07.03, 6:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States threatened to look for other oil suppliers unless Venezuela's government and foes of President Hugo Chavez found a way to end quickly a 37-day protest strike that has crippled the nation's oil exports, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

"We were consuming (from Venezuela) about 1.5 million barrels of petroleum a day, which we're not getting now," the official, who declined to be identified, told reporters. "Which means we would have to get it from someplace else."

The threat, the bluntest so far by the administration, comes as both the opposition and the government remain deadlocked on talks aimed at calling for what the United States says is "an electoral solution."

The opposition, a mix of business groups, political parties and union leaders, started the strike on Dec. 2 to force Chavez into resigning or calling early elections. Chavez has said that the constitution calls for a referendum in August and that he would not move the date forward.

The official said Venezuela and the United States enjoyed a "strategic and historic energy relationship" that could be jeopardized by the strike.

Tankers take just four or five days to cross the Gulf of Mexico, a region well supplied with refineries. "It all works wonderfully. And it's all been disrupted."

"Oil is fungible, it's a product that a lot of countries produce, and at the end of the day, Venezuela is going to be the loser in this if it doesn't resolve this because we'll buy our oil someplace else."

The strike has sharply reduced oil output from the world's fifth largest exporter, although the official declined to say by how much. By using replacement staff and drawing down stored crude, the government has managed to maintain exports at about 500,000 barrels per day compared with the 2.7 million bpd sold in November, according to shipping sources.