President Dilma Rousseff lost a crucial impeachment vote in Brazil’s lower house on Sunday evening, making her removal ever more likely and deepening the country’s political crisis less than four Continue Reading
The United States is seeking to block a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC nations to stabilize oil markets, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday, accusing Washington of applying “war-like” Continue Reading
Schlumberger Ltd. will reduce activity in Venezuela after the world’s largest oil services provider failed to collect enough payments from the national oil company. The reduction will take place this Continue Reading
At the main morgue of central Caracas, the stench forces everyone to cover their nostrils. “Now things are worse than ever,” says Yuli Sánchez. “They kill people and no one Continue Reading
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said the country’s workers will get Fridays off for the remainder of April and May in his latest attempt to save power amid a severe drought Continue Reading
Venezuela’s main steelmaker Sidor has been shut down for 25 days, a union leader said on Wednesday, blaming the situation on the military officers who run the state-owned firm. Sidor Continue Reading
Venezuela’s PDVSA will discharge in the coming days its first cargo of U.S. crude bought from British BP, who along with China Oil was awarded a tender to supply the Continue Reading
For nearly the past two decades, chavistas , or supporters of former President Hugo Chávez, have dominated Venezuelan government institutions and have actively promoted the Bolivarian Revolution, whose key ideological Continue Reading
The Panama Canal Authority has imposed further draft restrictions for vessels transiting through the canal effective April 29 due to ongoing El Nino-related droughts in the region. In a shipping Continue Reading
Brazil’s troubled state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA on Friday announced a beefed-up voluntary layoff program that could affect up to 12,000 jobs amid intense efforts to cut costs. Petrobras Continue Reading
Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly is questioning the legality of a $500 million deal Rosneft OJSC made with the state oil company to increase its stake in a local oil venture. Continue Reading
Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress upheld a campaign promise and approved an amnesty law late Tuesday that is likely to deepen an institutional standoff with President Nicolas Maduro. Voting across party lines, Continue Reading
British oil companies with interests in the Falkland Islands suffered a blow on Tuesday when a U.N. commission said that the waters around the South Atlantic archipelago belong to Argentina. Continue Reading
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA on Monday said it was the target of a smear campaign after the U.S. Justice Department said three of the firm’s former employees had pleaded Continue Reading
Argentina’s oil production declined 1.6% in January on the year, extending a slide that started in 1998, energy ministry data shows. Crude production dropped to 524,947 b/d in January from Continue Reading
Serious delays to load and unload vessels at Venezuela’s main crude port started to create a backlog of tankers last week that is now extending to the island of Curacao, Continue Reading
A Venezuelan oil contractor pleaded guilty to bribery in a U.S. court, the latest development in a wide-ranging Justice Department probe of state-run Petróleos de Venezuela. Abraham Jose Shiera Bastidas Continue Reading
Brazil’s troubled state-run oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro SA, reported its biggest quarterly loss ever Monday after lower oil prices and higher borrowing costs forced it to write off 49.75 billion Continue Reading
Venezuela’s state-oil firm PDVSA has bought a 500,000-barrel cargo of U.S. crude from trading company PetroChina for delivery April 1-10 at its terminal in the Caribbean island of Curacao, traders Continue Reading
Workers use a boat to take samples from a brine pool at the Rockwood Lithium plant on the Atacama salt flat, the largest lithium deposit currently in production, in the Continue Reading
Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it started production from the third and final phase of operations in the deep waters off the coast of oil-rich Brazil. “The safe, early delivery Continue Reading
Argentina offers one of the few places on earth where oil companies are not suffering from the full force of the collapse in prices. Argentina regulates oil prices, a policy Continue Reading
A Venezuelan court sentenced the publisher of a prominent provincial newspaper to four years in prison for defamation in the coverage of corruption at a state mining company, sparking concern Continue Reading
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has launched one of its largest oil tenders ever, seeking to buy some 8 million barrels of U.S. or Nigerian light crude for delivery from Continue Reading
The Latin American state-run oil companies whose largesse filled government coffers from Mexico to Brazil during the crude boom of the previous decade are quickly becoming dangerous liabilities as soaring Continue Reading
Venezuela will move to a floating exchange rate for non-essential imports on Thursday and allow the state-owned oil company to sell dollars into the new market, said Miguel Perez Abad, Continue Reading
A meeting between Latin American oil producers to unify the region in backing an output freeze or other measures to bolster prices has been postponed from Friday due to scheduling Continue Reading
From North Dakota to Texas and beyond, oil and gas companies have sharply reined in drilling and thousands of workers are being laid off. But here, where the oil and Continue Reading
France’s Total SA is weeks away from drilling one of its most important offshore exploration wells in the Americas this year as it hunts for a giant oil field in Continue Reading
A bit of financial juggling may have helped Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s embattled socialist president, stave off a default after paying $1.5bn to international creditors last month. But that will not Continue Reading
Venezuela has settled debts with at least three global drug companies by giving them bonds that trade at a heavy discount, a further sign of the OPEC nation’s worsening financial Continue Reading
Colombian exports slumped to their lowest level since 2007 in January, as prices fell for the Andean nation’s oil, coal and coffee. Exports fell 37 percent to $1.84 billion from Continue Reading
Venezuela has been in a tailspin since former President Hugo Chavez died in March 2013. But in addition to the country’s visible economic and political deterioration, another crisis is emerging, Continue Reading
Brazil’s Petrobras will slash its five-year investment plan by about one-fifth next month as low oil prices, massive debt and fallout from a corruption scandal hobble its ability to fund Continue Reading
From black gold to black hole. For a stark illustration of how oil price pain is spreading, look no further than the humbled state energy champions of Latin America. The Continue Reading
Forecast Given their fragmented, decentralized structure, Venezuela’s colectivos would have a difficult time openly confronting security forces in the coming year. These groups will try to maintain their independence in Continue Reading
As Venezuela grows closer to exhausting nearly every means of paying its debt, some oil market participants are seriously pondering the possible implications of an unprecedented event: the default of Continue Reading
As Venezuela grows closer to exhausting nearly every means of paying its debt, some oil market participants are seriously pondering the possible implications of an unprecedented event: the default of Continue Reading
Venezuela is planning to move fast with a new mining joint venture announced this week with Spokane, Washington-based Gold Reserve Inc. and will start extracting the precious metal within six Continue Reading
Bonds from Venezuela’s state oil company due in October surged after the country paid $1.5 billion of debt that matured Friday. The $1 billion of notes from Petroleos de Venezuela Continue Reading
Legislation to open coveted offshore oil fields in Brazil to foreign players took a major step forward this week, but still faces fierce resistance from opponents who consider the measure Continue Reading
Members of Maduro’s own party are reportedly working with the opposition to replace him. (Inti Ocon/AFP/Getty Images) With each passing day, it is becoming increasingly clear that Venezuelan President Nicolas Continue Reading
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-owned energy company, is scheduled to receive the first cargo of shale gas to be shipped from the U.S., according to a person familiar with the Continue Reading
A deal to freeze oil production could help buoy depressed crude prices by $10 to $15 dollars a barrel, according to Venezuela’s Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino, who called on Continue Reading
Russia’s Rosneft OJSC agreed to pay $500 million to Petroleos de Venezuela SA to increase its stake in their Petromonagas crude-processing joint venture. The deal will increase Rosneft’s stake in Continue Reading
Venezuela’s 1989 fuel price hike helped spark riots that left hundreds dead, traumatized the country and spooked future presidents from touching the world’s cheapest fuel. Yet the most significant rise Continue Reading
The deal struck between Saudi Arabia and Russia this week to cap oil output was the first meaningful response by producing countries to the collapse in crude prices. It was Continue Reading
Russia’s Rosneft OJSC agreed to pay $500 million to Petroleos de Venezuela SA to increase its stake in their Petromonagas crude-processing joint venture. The deal will increase Rosneft’s stake in Continue Reading
Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA is said to be looking into leasing the Aruba refinery, where it would ship tar-like oil to be upgraded into higher value Continue Reading
Venezuela’s central bank on Thursday released long-awaited data showing the depth of the OPEC country’s recession, a day after President Nicolas Maduro announced a package of measures seen as insufficient Continue Reading
