Venezuela shuts in some oil output as storage full

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.28.03, 9:43 AM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela has temporarily shut in between 450,000 to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production in the east as storage tanks have bulged and export loadings from the Jose port have slowed over the past three days, an official from state oil firm PDVSA and rebel oil workers said on Friday. A PDVSA manager told Reuters up to 500,000 bpd of oil production in eastern Venezuela had been shut in, but that output could begin to recover over the weekend as loadings of crude resumed cleared out the bottleneck at ports. Venezuela has been struggling to restore its oil production after a strike started Dec. 2 by foes of President Hugo Chavez slashed production from 3.1 million bpd in November. Dissident PDVSA oil employees said that around 450,000 bpd of oil output had been shut down and that the OPEC nation was currently pumping 1.13 million bpd. On Thursday, the government said production was 2.08 million bpd.