Category: Latin America

The U.S. wants to use shale oil as a geopolitical weapon to destroy Venezuela by flooding the market with supply and driving prices down, according to the OPEC member. Hydraulic fracturing, the method used to remove shale oil trapped in rock, is “destructive,” President Nicolas Maduro said during a national address broadcast on radio and television. Venezuela’s economy shrank 2.8 percent last year as crude slumped almost 50 percent amid the fastest pace of U.S. production in more than three decades while the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to cut output. “The U.S. wants to use oil as a geopolitical weapon,” Maduro, 52, said during his speech on Jan. 21. “They’re trying to destroy Venezuela.” OPEC members Venezuela and Iran have questioned the group’s decision to maintain its quota. Oman, the biggest Middle Eastern oil producer that’s not part of OPEC, is having a “really difficult time” […]

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ENLARGE Citgo-branded gas stations weren’t part of the sales process. Reuters A sale process for Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp. has been called off, and the U.S.-based oil refiner instead plans a debt sale that would raise funds for the cash-strapped country. The auction was scrapped in recent days after several suitors submitted bids in early December, people familiar with the matter said. Citgo is now planning to raise $2.5 billion in debt instead, one of the people said. The sales process could be restarted later. Corporate auctions are rare in the immediate aftermath of such recapitalization deals, however, and the added debt could make the company less attractive to suitors too. Citgo, which operates three U.S. oil refineries and related assets from its Houston headquarters, was expected to fetch between $8 billion and $11 billion should it have been sold, analysts and people close to the sales process have […]

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Harvest Natural Resources Inc. , Houston, is seeking international arbitration against Venezuela, alleging the country’s government has thwarted efforts to sell its interest there. Through subsidiaries, Harvest owns 32% of Petrodelta SA, which produces oil in eastern Venezuela. The US company tried to sell the interest to state-owned PT Pertamina (Persero) of Indonesia and later to Pluspetrol Venezuela SA ( OGJ Online, Nov. 20, 2013 ). Harvest Pres. and Chief Executive Officer James A. Edmiston blamed the government for failure of those efforts. “Over the past decade, the Venezuelan government has violated Harvest’s rights as an investor by systematically thwarting the development of Harvest’s investment in Venezuela as well as the company’s ability to sell its interest there,” he said in a statement. Harvest has had interests in the Latin American country for 22 years. Affiliates HNR Finance BV and Harvest Vinccler SCA submitted a request for arbitration before […]

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his government plans to coordinate with OPEC and non-OPEC producers to create a “formula that impacts the oil market and restores the normalization of prices” in the next few weeks. Maduro spoke on Venezuela state television after meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as falling oil prices threaten the economies of both nations. The two leaders met today in Moscow to discuss global oil markets and the “stability of natural resources,” Maduro said. “Venezuela is not just a friend but also a close partner, one of Russia ’s most important partners,” Putin said in a statement posted online by Venezuela’s Information Ministry. Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest crude reserves, relies on oil exports for almost 95 percent of foreign currency earnings. The price of the country’s crude fell to $42.44 a barrel last week from a peak of $100.64 on June 27. […]

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People line up outside a supermarket to buy toilet paper in Caracas January 12, 2015. REUTERS/Jorge … CARACAS (Reuters) – Governors in three Venezuelan states have banned overnight queuing amid huge and sometimes rowdy lines around shops across the scarcity-plagued country. Shortages of basic consumer products from milk to toilet paper have worsened since a lull in distribution over the Christmas and New Year holidays, prompting many to wait from the early hours on foot – or in hammocks – before shops open. The ubiquitous lines and frequent jostling for places when shop doors finally open are an embarrassment and irritation to Venezuelans across the political spectrum. There have also been scattered protests and arrests. "We are going to prohibit lines outside commercial establishments," Falcon state governor Stella Lugo said late on Tuesday. "Security forces have been instructed." She joined two other governors, in the states of Bolivar and […]

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Print | Single Page [ – ] Text [ + ] (Adds comments from National Assembly leader, access limits.) By Alexandra Ulmer and Javier Farias CARACAS/ SAN CRISTOBAL Jan 12 (Reuters) – At least a dozen protesters arrested in Venezuela remained in jail on Monday and masked assailants burned a bus amid scattered unrest over swelling lines for basic goods, activists said. Police rounded up 16 people for protesting outside stores over the weekend, according to the opposition MUD coalition, which said four of them were released shortly after. Rights group Penal Forum said 18 protesters were still behind bars on Monday. The government did not confirm that. Venezuela is suffering from chronic shortages of goods ranging from diapers to flour that have worsened since an ebb in deliveries over Christmas. The scarcity has forced shoppers across Venezuela to line up in front of stores before dawn. The MUD […]

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is seeking several billion dollars from Qatari lenders to help plug a budget gap after oil lost more than half its value. “We’re finalizing a financial alliance with important banks from Qatar that will give us sufficient oxygen to help cover the fall in oil prices and give us the resources we need for the national foreign currency budget,” he said on state television. Maduro, Hugo Chavez ’s hand-picked successor, is turning to Asia and the Middle East for relief as crude’s nosedive of more than 50 percent erodes international reserves and funding options. Boasting the world’s biggest oil reserves, the Latin American nation has seen its crude output slump since 2008 and imports of refined products surge as state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA revenue is diverted to social programs and fuel subsidies. The financing would be for “various” billions of dollars for 2015 and […]

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(Adds Venezuela government comments) RIYADH Jan 11 (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman in Riyadh on Sunday as part of a diplomatic tour of OPEC members to discuss falling oil prices, which have hit its economy hard. The Saudi side in the meeting included Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and several princes including Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin, intelligence chief Prince Khaled bin Bandar and three sons of King Abdullah, who is in hospital, state media reported. No details of the meeting were given by the official Saudi Press Agency and there was no indication that the world’s biggest oil exporter was any closer to taking action to stem the over 50 percent rout in oil prices. The Venezuelan government said in a statement that "we agreed to work to recover the market and oil prices with state policies between the two energy powerhouses." It […]

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