Venezuela Pumps More Oil, Adding Pressure on Strikers
www.nytimes.com By JUAN FORERO
CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 31 — Though hammered by a 61-day strike, Venezuela's oil industry is now pumping three times the crude it was in December and will soon meet contractual commitments that were scrapped when the walkout began, the president of the state-run petroleum company said today.
Although far off its prestrike total of 3.1 million barrels a day, Venezuela is now extracting 1.5 million barrels daily and could reach 2 million by the end of February, Alí Rodríguez, president of Petróleos de Venezuela, told foreign reporters. By March, production is expected to reach 2.8 million daily, a level that would allow Venezuela to meet its contractual obligations, which have been suspended. Advertisement
"The international financial community can be absolutely sure that we will meet all our financial obligations," Mr. Rodríguez said.
Petróleos de Venezuela was the fifth-largest exporter of crude and one of four crucial suppliers of oil to the United States before the Dec. 2 anti-government strike began.
Mr. Rodríguez's assessments, if accurate, are the clearest indication yet that President Hugo Chávez's government is on its way to reactivating a once moribund industry that opposition leaders had hoped to use as a weapon to force his ouster.
The strike, which had shut down much of the country, is now fraying as an increasing number of businesses open their doors. Though still able to muster hundreds of thousands for antigovernment marches, as it did today, the opposition is rapidly losing leverage as negotiations with the government enter a new phase in which the two sides are expected to discuss the feasibility of an electoral solution to the country's political turmoil.
"Every day that goes by, the government is winning by attrition," said Lawrence J. Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, an industry-supported consulting group in New York. "And every day that goes by, they are winning a little bit more because workers are going back and production is going up."
Today, the government and the opposition met with the so-called friendly nations, including the United States and Brazil, that are trying to help bolster talks by providing guidance and advice to the two sides.
With mediation from César Gaviria, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, the two sides were expected to discuss two proposals put forth earlier this month by former President Jimmy Carter during a visit to Caracas. One calls for a constitutional amendment cutting the president's term to four years from six and leading to an early vote; the other would convene a recall referendum in August.
But the negotiations promise to be difficult, and government officials have grown increasingly defiant this week, feeling that a victory over the strikers is at hand.
Opposition leaders still believe they have an oil card to play, and today they cast Mr. Rodríguez's assessment as exceedingly rosy. They noted that just Thursday the finance minister, Tobías Nóbrega, said the 2003 budget for the oil company would be cut by $2.7 billion to about $6 billion to offset the two-month slide in revenue.
Venezuela, which continues to import gasoline, is refining much of its oil abroad and is in dire need of experienced managers and engineers to restart its operations.
"That is all a big contradiction, what they are saying," said Edgar Paredes, an oil executive who helped lead the walkout. The dissident oil workers instead contend that oil production stands at 1.1 million barrels.
Mr. Rodríguez today acknowledged that spending would drop 40 percent and investment 30 percent this year, possibly foreshadowing a big fall in production that could hurt a country that depends on oil for half of its government spending.
The executive, though, told reporters that a planned restructuring of the company would lead to staff cutbacks and reductions in some operations to make Petróleos de Venezuela more efficient. He did not rule out selling bonds or overseas assets.
Mr. Rodríguez also announced that 5,300 of the company's 33,000 salaried workers — among the thousands who walked off the job — had been fired. He said there was little chance those workers would get their jobs back, particularly the 700 senior executives who helped orchestrate the strike.
Many of those workers also played a role in an April strike that led to Mr. Chávez's temporary removal from power. After reinstating them, the government decided not to retaliate. But not this time, Mr. Rodríguez said.
"Those people got their jobs back or got better positions," he said. "They took advantage of that policy."
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