Venezuela Cerro Negro syncrude project restarted

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.25.03, 7:03 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Venezuela's foreign-financed Cerro Negro extra heavy oil upgrading project, shut by an oil strike started on Dec. 2 by foes of President Hugo Chavez, has restarted operations, project partner ExxonMobil (nyse: XOM - news - people) said on Tuesday. Cerro Negro, along with two other extra heavy Orinoco synthetic crude upgrading projects, had been shut by the strike due in part to a lack of natural gas feedstock supplies from state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). The four had been pumping around 400,000 barrels per day of oil. "Operadora Cerro Negro S.A. (OCN), an ExxonMobil affiliate, confirms that its upgrader operations have restarted with an initial production of 55,000 barrels per day (bpd) of upgraded crude," a statement from the U.S. oil giant, which is partnered with PDVSA in Cerro Negro, said. "Once the operation has stabilized, and assuming that a reliable supply of gas and hydrogen is maintained, field production will be restored as quickly as possible," ExxonMobil said. Cerro Negro has capacity to process 120,000 bpd of extra heavy crude into 108,000 bpd of synthetic, refineable crude. The Sincor syncrude project is also resuming operations this week. The Hamaca project, which has not yet completed its upgrading unit, restarted limited production last week while Petrozuata is still shut.