Venezuela's state-run oil company resumes gasoline exports after strike

<a href=www.canada.com>Canadian Press Wednesday, April 23, 2003

CARACAS (AP) - Venezuela's state-run oil monopoly said Tuesday it has recovered sufficiently from the crippling effects of a two-month oil strike to resume fulfilling its supply contracts with foreign buyers.

The strike called by government opponents to demand President Hugo Chavez's resignation or early elections throttled exports from the world's fifth-largest supplier and cost Venezuela $6 billion US in sales. "The recuperation phase has concluded," PDVSA president Ali Rodriguez said in a release. "This show the success in re-establishing the international reputation of PDVSA as a safe and trustworthy energy supplier."

Chavez said Tuesday that Venezuelan oil production is over three million barrels a day. Output dropped to a low of less than 200,000 barrels a day at the height of the strike, which started in December and withered in early February.

Rodriguez said Venezuela is exporting 1.8 million barrels of crude and 90,000 barrels of gasoline per day.

PDVSA declared itself unable to fulfil contracts in December, leaving its international clients free to buy crude oil and gasoline from other sources.