Venezuelan oil production well over two million barrels per day

www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2003 By: Robert Rudnicki

Depending on if you believe government or opposition estimates, Venezuela is currently producing well over two million barrels of oil per day, with the government putting the figure at 2.6 million and rebel Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executives insisting 2.1 million. 

Although both estimates are still well below output levels of 3.2 million barrels per day before the opposition work stoppage began on December 2, they still represent a huge improvement on mid-December levels of 150,000 barrels per day and show PDVSA has been able to recover production significantly faster than may analysts had expected. 

It had been assumed by many that a recover back to around 1.5 million barrels per day would be quite easy, but due to a lack of experienced personnel several analysts claimed that above that figure a recovery would be very slow as older more complex wells would be harder to get back on line. 

Another important factor is the fact that the recovery has come despite the sacking of around 16,000 of the pre-strike 38,000 workers, as the government seeks to cut the company's overheads and make it more profitable.