<a href=reuters.com>Reuters

NEW YORK, April 24 - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its 'CCC+' corporate credit rating on Harvest Natural Resources Inc. and revised its outlook on the company to stable from negative.

"The outlook revision follows a similar change to our outlook for the foreign currency rating on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CCC+/Stable/C) and Harvest's resumption of production and sales to Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA; CCC+/Stable/--), Venezuela's national oil company. As a result, we believe there is less uncertainty surrounding future production sales--hence, cash flow--from Harvest's Venezuela operations," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Daniel Volpi.

Harvest's production sales to PDVSA were interrupted from Dec. 14, 2002 to Feb. 6, 2003 due to political turmoil in Venezuela. Harvest estimates that it lost roughly 1.6 million barrels of sales to 1.9 million barrels of sales over the fourth quarter of 2002 and the first quarter of 2003. With a resumption of more normalized production levels, currently about 25,000 barrels per day(bpd), 2003 production is estimated to average about 22,000 bpd to 25,000 bpd, compared with 26,000 bpd in 2002.

Harvest relies on its operations in Venezuela and its service agreement with PDVSA for essentially all of its operating cash flow. The ratings on the company are constrained by the political risk attendant to its Venezuela operations.

The stable outlook reflects Standard & Poor's expectations that Harvest will maintain normal production sales to PDVSA. Until the company becomes less reliant on its Venezuela operations, its ratings will track those of PDVSA and Venezuela. Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Fixed Income in the left navigation bar, select Credit Ratings Actions.

Forbes.com-Reuters, 04.23.03, 6:06 AM ET

MILAN, April 23 (Reuters) - A $480 million project to develop Venezuela's Corocoro oilfield has been launched, one of the partners in the project, Italy's biggest oil and gas group Eni <ENI.MI>, said on Wednesday.

The Corocoro field in the country's Gulf of Paria West area is expected to reach output of 55,000 barrels per day of crude oil by 2005.

Eni said in a statement that the Corocoro field's development would allow it boost production by 14,500 bpd and strengthen its position in Venezuela where it also operates the Dacion oilfield in the eastern part of the country.

The partners in the venture are ConocoPhillips (nyse: COP - news - people) with a 32.5 percent stake, Venezuela's state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) with 35 percent, Eni with 26 percent and Taiwan's OPIC with 6.5 percent, Eni said.

Venezuela, world's No. 5 crude exporter, has been trying to revive an oil industry hit by a crippling anti-government general strike late last year and earlier this year.

<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.

<a href=http://www.quicken.com/investments/news_center/story/?story=NewsStory/dowJones/20030421/ON200304211426000916.var&column=P0DEC>Dow Jones NewsWires-quicken.com</a> 

Monday, April 21, 2003 02:26 PM ET  Printer-friendly version   CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela will send 13 shipments of Merey crude oil to ConocoPhillips(COP, news) by June, adding to two shipments totaling 1.12 million barrels in April, Venezuela's state-run Venpres news agency reported Monday.

In April, the B/T Constitution and the Pioner shipped 550,000 barrels and 571, 000 barrels respectively, according to Venpres, which didn't specify total volume expected to be shipped through June.

Shipping agents couldn't be reached to verify the ships' names which are often mispelled by Venpres.

Venezuela's government claims crude oil output has now topped 3.1 million barrels per day after being down as low as 150,000 b/d during the strike that began Dec. 2.

The government has said it lost about $7 billion due to the strike.

Former managers at state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA have put production at closer to 2.6 million b/d.

Venezuela normally provides about 15% of U.S. crude oil and refined product imports.

-By Jehan Senaratna; Dow Jones Newswires; 58212 564 1339; jehan.senaratna@ dowjones.com

Reuters, 04.15.03, 5:55 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 15 (Reuters) - Venezuela on Tuesday signed a contract to supply Korea Southern Power Co. Ltd. (KEPCO) <15760.KS> with 300,000 tonnes of boiler fuel orimulsion annually through 2006, the state news agency Venpres reported. The South Korean state-run power monopoly had purchased its first cargo of the fuel in January from Venezuelan state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the world's sole provider of orimulsion. Orimulsion, a mixture of 70 percent extra heavy crude oil and 30 percent water, is produced in Venezuela's vast Orinoco tarbelt and used for direct burning at power plants. PDVSA also exports orimulsion to China and Italy. Shipments of orimulsion were disrupted during a two-month oil strike started Dec. 2 by foes of President Hugo Chavez.