PDVSA delays nitrogen plans in Venezuela

www.latintrade.com 01/15/2003 - Source: BNamericas

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has delayed plans for a nitrogen injection project in the east of the country and a combined nitrogen injection and power generation project in the west "indefinitely," a mines and energy ministry source told BNamericas. According to previous reports, combined investment in the two projects would be some US$2.7bn. PDVSA's new management has formed a technical committee, which is re-evaluating the feasibility of the two nitrogen injection projects, the source said, without saying when the committee might make a decision. Bids for the eastern and western projects were due this month.

The projects would have produced nitrogen for reinjection to increase hydrocarbons production, and the western project, at Ciudad Ojeda in Zulia state, would have included a 1,000MW power plant. PDVSA had sold about 40 sets of bidding rules for the projects before Venezuela's general strike started, which has brought the world's fifth largest oil producer to the verge of collapse with thousands of oil-workers calling for President Hugo Chavez to quit. In retaliation for PDVSA's part in the strike Chavez has fired managers and plans to split the state-owned company into two separate entities in the east and west of the country.