Citgo expects 17 pct less Venez. crude in Jan vs 2002

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.21.03, 6:10 PM ET

NEW YORK, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Citgo Petroleum Corp. said on Tuesday it expects to receive crude oil deliveries this month from Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA that will equal about 83 percent of the volume Citgo received in January 2002.

A general strike that started Dec. 2 has substantially curbed oil exports from Venezuela. Citgo Petroleum Co. is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the state oil company of Venezuela.

Citgo, making its comments in an 8K filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in December the company received from PDVSA about 59 percent of the year-ago volume.

"To date...our refineries have continued to operate at normal levels and our deliveries to customers have not been disrupted," Citgo said in the filing.

The firm has refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Lemont, Illinois.

Citgo acknowledged that the reduction of crude oil supply from PDVSA has required buying alternate sources of crude oil that "may differ from the PDVSA-sourced crude oil in terms of cost, logistics and physical characteristics."

Lyondell Chemical Co. (nyse: LYO - news - people) said on Tuesday that production at its refinery in Houston, a joint venture with Citgo, is at 85 percent of its capacity of 270,000 barrels per day (bpd). Lyondell said

Lyondell also said availability of spot and Venezuelan contract crude has improved the refinery's ability to operate.