Venezuela oil sales unchanged from last wk
www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.12.03, 4:01 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A six-week strike by foes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week held international oil shipments by Venezuela, the world's No. 5 crude exporter, to about one-fifth of November levels.
Venezuela's oil exports were capped at about 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the week ending Jan. 11 compared with about 575,000 bpd in the previous week, according to calculations made by Reuters, based on data from shipping sources and state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
The OPEC nation exported almost 2.7 million bpd of crude and products before the strike, which began Dec. 2. Chavez opponents, including thousands of PDVSA executives and managers as well as oil field workers, refinery staff, ship captains and dock workers, have joined the stoppage aimed at forcing the left-wing leader to step down.
Chavez has refused to resign and is trying to restructure PDVSA to restore the industry, which provides about one-half of government revenues. Replacement staff have boosted oil output to 800,000 bpd, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Sunday, compared with 3.1 million bpd in November.
Striking PDVSA executives said the government has only been able to raise oil output to 400,000 bpd, from under 200,000 bpd at its lowest point. The dissident oil-firm employees said unqualified replacement workers have damaged installations and caused oil spills.
GOVERNMENT PLEDGES The loss of Venezuelan exports, which normally supply over 13 percent of U.S. oil imports, sent crude prices to two-year highs over $33 a barrel in recent weeks. Oil cartel OPEC held an emergency meeting in Vienna Sunday to increase oil quotas to compensate for the Venezuelan disruption.
"We have an agreement signed by all OPEC members to increase the ceiling by 1.5 (million bpd)," Venezuela's Ramirez told reporters at the OPEC meeting.
"OPEC countries committed themselves to defend and support our market share until such time that we can re-establish oil production levels in mid-February," Ramirez said, adding he expected Venezuela's output to hit 2.5 million bpd by then.
PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez, also attending the OPEC meeting, told reporters the 940,000-bpd Amuay-Cardon refining complex would be restarted and back to normal in two to three weeks. He said oil production would rise to 2 million bpd by the end of January.
Government attempts to restore the industry have met with mixed success. Ramirez said in late December that oil production would be increased to 1.2 million bpd by the second week of January, and that the 130,000 bpd El Palito refinery would be restarted early in the month.
PDVSA's Rodriguez said operations at El Palito would now resume after a seal blew in last week's attempt to restart the refinery.
In addition, the government may have a difficult time increasing exports even if oil output is raised.
Only ships chartered by PDVSA and U.S. refining affiliate Citgo have been loading cargoes for export since the strike started. Foreign lifters, concerned with insurance risks associated with vessels loaded by uncertified staff, have said they will not bring tankers to port until conditions are considered safe by insurance pools.
However, the government has managed to import some gasoline to help ease an acute domestic fuel crisis.
Chavez said on Friday he had fired 1,000 striking PDVSA employees and that he would use the stoppage to get rid of anti-government managers.
Dissident PDVSA leaders have said it would take four months to bring operations back to 90 percent of normal levels, and would only be achieved if all striking workers returned to their jobs.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service