Political Clashes Shake Venezuela’s Strained Oil Industry

[Johnny]

Reuters

Rafael Ramírez, Venezuela’s energy minister, has been summoned to the National Assembly to respond to accusations of corruption.

By SIMON ROMERO - Published: July 23, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, July 22 — Venezuela’s national oil company is being shaken by claims of corruption and by internal dissent, indicating fissures within the institution largely responsible for financing President Hugo Chávez’s widening array of social welfare programs and foreign aid projects.

The problems at the company, Petróleos de Venezuela, have been compounded by a rare acknowledgment by Rafael Ramírez, the energy minister and president of the company, that it cannot hire enough drilling rigs, raising concern over its ability to halt declines in oil production.

“Our sovereignty is at risk if we allow Petróleos de Venezuela to remain in this situation,” Luís Tascón, a pro-Chávez lawmaker, said in a telephone interview. “We cannot allow this company to remain an indecipherable black box.” Mr. Tascón has summoned Mr. Ramírez to the National Assembly to respond to accusations of corruption against senior executives.

Mr. Ramírez has emerged as a focus of criticism amid claims of illegal deals with oil-services companies on his watch. The attacks on him are viewed as part of a power struggle among Mr. Chávez’s supporters, with ideological loyalists clashing with the relatively less radical technocrats in charge of the strained oil industry.

The tension within Petróleos de Venezuela follows other feuds within political institutions under Mr. Chávez’s control that began earlier this year when several political parties in his coalition resisted his move to gather supporters into a single Socialist party.

The armed forces also experienced an internal uproar after Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel delivered a speech as he prepared to step down as defense minister this month saying that Mr. Chávez’s Socialist-inspired transformation of Venezuelan society should not be contaminated by Marxist orthodoxy.

But the depth of problems within Petróleos de Venezuela, which is responsible for about half of total government revenues and three-quarters of Venezuelan export revenues, illustrates how the feuds within Mr. Chávez’s coalition may weaken his ability to carry out his plans.

In comments that jolted global energy markets last week, Mr. Ramírez, the energy minister, acknowledged that Petróleos de Venezuela had hired 40 percent fewer drilling rigs than its target for this year, in part because of new rules requiring contractors to donate 10 percent of the value of their contracts to social welfare projects.

While difficulty finding drilling rigs is not limited to Venezuela at a time of growing exploration internationally, Petróleos de Venezuela is also grappling with internal labor disputes as the company is strained by plans to create an assemblage of new subsidiaries charged with activities like farming, shipbuilding and manufacturing.

Union leaders, sensing vulnerability among senior executives and complaining that management had reneged on various employment benefits, said they were planning protests at production facilities across Venezuela this week. Work stoppages could make the company’s production difficulties more acute.

Speaking before the National Assembly last week, Luis Vierma, vice president of exploration and production at Petróleos de Venezuela, described the company as being in an “operational emergency.” A company spokesman did not respond to requests for interviews with Mr. Ramírez and Mr. Vierma.

Venezuela, with some of the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, officially claims to produce almost 3.1 million barrels of oil a day, but institutions like the International Energy Agency in Paris put output at 2.37 million barrels a day, down about 230,000 from a year ago.

Other energy analysts say output problems are potentially even more broadly troubling. The country’s oil exports fell 15 percent while overall production dropped 7 percent in the first quarter of this year, said Ramón Espinasa, a chief economist at Petróleos de Venezuela in the pre-Chávez era and now a respected consultant, citing both the difficulties with hiring rigs and a surge in domestic fuel consumption driven by subsidized prices.

Combined with lower global oil prices during part of this year, Venezuela’s income from oil exports may decline by about 24 percent in 2007, to $45.6 billion compared with $60.4 billion last year, by Mr. Espinasa’s estimate.

Font: The New York Times

[Fernando Silva]

O Chávez está desperdiçando tanto dinheiro com demagogia, inclusive em outros países, que não sobra para pesquisar mais petróleo. A produção dos atuais postos vai acabar e não há outros sendo pesquisados e preparados para produzir.

[Aranha]

O Chávez está desperdiçando tanto dinheiro com demagogia, inclusive em outros países, que não sobra para pesquisar mais petróleo. A produção dos atuais postos vai acabar e não há outros sendo pesquisados e preparados para produzir.

- Tomara que isso aconteça logo, já está acontecendo no México, as reservas fáceis de explorar já estão acabando e a produção deles já está menor que a Brasileira, eles pediram socorro à Petrobrás (a tal tecnologia de prospecção em águas profundas) mas a legislação monopolista do México é ainda mais restritiva que a Brasileira e não permite que a Petrobrás faça porra nenhuma, estão morrendo a míngua, sem poder pedir água.

Abraços,

[Johnny]

A intenção é essa. Chaves achava que a tecnologia da brasileira iria junto. Mas tem umas coisas que eles não contavam. Aguardem alguns meses e verão...

[Tulio]

A intenção é essa. Chaves achava que a tecnologia da brasileira iria junto. Mas tem umas coisas que eles não contavam. Aguardem alguns meses e verão...

... o mula soltar pro gorila.

[Johnny]

Certas coisas não podem ser quebradas nem pelo prefidente e muito menos o que coloque em risco a soberania ou economia nacional...