Venezuela PdVSA Fires 1,088 Workers;Total Now At 15,636

sg.biz.yahoo.com Monday February 24, 9:47 PM

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--A total of 15,636 employees at Venezuela's state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela (E.PVZ) have been fired in the aftermath of a strike which started Dec. 2 last year, a company official said.

"Yes, we have dismissed an additional 1,088 employees in the eastern part of the country," said Mario Socorro, a spokesman of the PdVSA division in east Venezuela. The dismissals now total around 40% of the workforce that was employed before the strike started. However, the total figure varies somewhat. The local daily El Universal maintains the dismissals now stand at 16,036 while PdVSA couldn't provide a definite list.

Some 35,000 oil workers at PdVSA joined a nationwide strike Dec. 2 last year that was aimed at the resignation of President Hugo Chavez. The strike severely crippled exports and production which stood at a level of around 3 million b/d by the end of November.

Crude production at PdVSA currently stands at 2.02 million barrels per day, the company president said Sunday. "We are now at the production level of 2.02 million barrels and by the end of next week it will be 2.5 million barrels per day," Ali Rodriguez said. However, fired staff of PdVSA claim production is much lower and stands at around 1.4 million b/d while exports stand at 1 million b/d. Rodriguez didn't give any new export numbers.

Chavez, discussing production levels at his televised Sunday show "Hello President" said he expects the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, not to have any problems that Venezuela would "progressively put crude stocks on the market that haven't been used," he said, without elaborating further.

Last year, Venezuela exceeded its official output target of 2.5 million b/d by around 400,000 b/d when it drew from crude inventories that are located in the Caribbean. Venezuela's OPEC quota - at least on paper - is 2.819 million b/d.

Venezuela's request comes as the company struggles to go beyond the 2 million b/d production level. After focusing on easy oil fields that don't require much added pressure to get the oil flowing, PdVSA faces difficulties as mature oil fields are more labor and capital intensive and take more time to pump oil. Experts have said they doubt PdVSA would reach 2.5 million b/d any time soon due to a lack of financial and human resources.

However, on Sunday a local newspaper reported PdVSA plans to lift the force majeure on its operations in the coming days as the situation at the company is almost back to normal.

A declaration of force majeure three days after the nationwide strike started Dec. 2 temporarily released the company and its clients from contractual obligations.

-By Fred Pals, Dow Jones Newswires; 58414-2887461; fred.pals@dowjones.com