Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) is conducting both planned and unplanned maintenance work at three of its Venezuelan refineries. At its 645,000-b/d Amuay refinery, which comprises part of the Paraguana Refining Center Continue Reading
Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Venezuelan economic among the region’s worst hit by the slump in crude oil prices, the International Monetary Fund says. UPI/Gary I Rothstein WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) — Venezuela stands out in terms of regional economies affected most by the weak crude oil market, a research note from the International Monetary Fund said. The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, is up about 20 percent since the beginning of February, but nearly 40 percent below June 2014 levels. The IMF said the low price of crude oil is a net benefit to countries that rely on importers as the savings spills over to consumer pocketbooks. For net exporters, the weak market is creating fiscal pressures . "One country that stands out is Venezuela, which had been experiencing severe economic imbalances before oil prices began to fall and now finds itself in […]
Photo by Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images An employee waits to unload valuable merchandise while people line up outside a supermarket in Caracas on Jan. 20, 2015. Cash-strapped Venezuela, which has the second-largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia, and relies on oil for 95 percent of its export revenue, has been hit particularly hard by plummeting global prices. Still, it’s hard not to read a commodity-sharing deal proposed by nearby Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister as anything but humiliating. Joshua Keating Joshua Keating is a staff writer at Slate focusing on international affairs. At a news conference Tuesday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar suggested that her government would “purchase goods identified by the Government of Venezuela from T&T’s manufacturers, such as tissue paper, gasoline, and parts for machinery,” and trade them for Venezuelan oil. It’s not clear if the Venezuelans are open to the deal, but they certainly need […]
People queue up outside a supermarket in Caracas. Photographer: Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images (Bloomberg) — Venezuela, plagued with shortages of basic goods, was offered a reprieve by the Prime Minister of neighboring Trinidad & Tobago: exchange oil for tissue paper. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar suggested an oil-for-tissue swap in a news conference Tuesday following a meeting in Port of Spain with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. She said the deal would benefit both countries. “The concept of commodity sharing is simple -– the Government of Trinidad and Tobago will purchase goods identified by the Government of Venezuela from T&T’s manufacturers, such as tissue paper, gasoline, and parts for machinery,” Persad-Bissessar said. In Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, citizens line up outside supermarkets for hours seeking a bag of clothing detergent, toilet paper or cooking oil. Price controls and a lack of dollars for importers have emptied […]
CARACAS, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Venezuela has requested the annulment of a World Bank tribunal award that orders it pay Exxon Mobil Corp $1.6 billion in compensation for nationalizations, both sides said on Wednesday. George Kahale, Venezuela’s lawyer, said he did not know when the tribunal was likely to issue a decision on the request. "The first step is for the appointment of the committee to hear the annulment application, and that has not happened yet," said the lawyer with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP. "The schedule for the annulment process will not be determined until after the committee is appointed." Exxon said earlier on Wednesday the South American OPEC country had filed for an annulment of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes award on Feb. 2. "The application alleges that, in issuing the ICSID award, the Tribunal exceeded its powers, failed to state reasons on […]
CARACAS (Reuters) – About a dozen foreign energy companies in Venezuela have been authorized to exchange foreign currency at a new, more advantageous rate in bolivars in order to boost cash flow and speed up projects, a high-level PDVSA source said on Tuesday. The companies, participating in joint ventures in various fields around Venezuela, can now buy local currency at the Simadi rate, currently averaging 172 bolivars per dollar, compared to far more disadvantageous rates used in the past. "This will increase the bolivars they have for capital expenditure and operational expenditure. It is a huge incentive and drastically affects cash flow," the PDVSA source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told Reuters. "Partners who have been skeptical will now be encouraged to speed up," the source said. State-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA’s foreign partners have long cited as […]
AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos World Video Buy AP Photo Reprints Multimedia Venezuelan ‘System’ Brings Classics to Barrios CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appears to have chosen his latest foe carefully. While the arrest of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma provoked spontaneous demonstrations and drew international condemnation, it also reminded many Venezuelans of what they most disliked about the politicians who preceded Maduro and his late mentor Hugo Chavez at a time when the socialist government faces an economic crisis that has sent the president’s popularity plummeting. Over the past year, Maduro’s embattled government has arrested several opposition politicians and business executives, accusing them of plotting to destabilize the government. None, however, fits the role of boogeyman quite like Ledezma, who plunged into politics in his 20s and has amassed a bevy of political liabilities over the years. Chief among them is his close relationship with disgraced former President […]
Last week, Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma received an unexpected visit from the Venezuelan political police. After being taken into custody from his office without a warrant, Ledezma was charged with conspiring to overthrow the government of President Nicolás Maduro. He is now being held in the Ramo Verde military prison, where Leopoldo López and several other opposition leaders are also in detention. (The photo above shows Ledezma supporters demonstrating outside the headquarters of the domestic intelligence service in Caracas on Feb. 19.) Ledezma’s imprisonment marks a dangerous new watershed for Venezuela’s escalating political and economic crisis, one whose solution becomes more difficult to visualize with each passing week. The polarization in the country, caused by the government’s harsh treatment of the opposition, makes it practically impossible for Venezuelans to address their country’s challenges on their own. The tragedy is that there seem to be no honest brokers left to help usher […]
(Bloomberg) — With oil prices ticking up and new financing commitments, cash-strapped Venezuela is persuading traders and analysts alike to back away from calls the country will default this year. But not everyone is buying it. Deutsche Bank AG and Jefferies LLC still see Venezuela running out of money to pay debt in 2015. They’re the only ones out of 10 firms surveyed by Bloomberg, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG. While the country has raised almost $5 billion in the past month and oil has jumped 21 percent from an almost six-year low, Deutsche Bank’s Armando Armenta says that’s still not enough. Venezuela needs $32 billion to finance itself this year, according to his estimates. “The financing gap that they are facing for this year with current oil prices is just too large,” Armenta, the bank’s New York-based economist, said by telephone. “I […]
CARACAS, Venezuela — For a glimpse into Venezuela ’s economic disarray, slip into a travel agency here and book a round-trip flight to Maracaibo, on the other side of the country, for just $16. Need a book to read on the plane? For those with hard currency, a new copy of “50 Shades of Grey” goes for $2.50. Forget your toothpaste? A tube of Colgate costs 7 cents. Quite the bargain, right? But for the majority of Venezuelans who lack easy access to dollars, such surreal prices reflect a tremendous currency devaluation and a crumbling economy expected to contract 7 percent this year as oil income plunges and price controls produce acute shortages of items including milk, detergent and condoms . “I’ve seen people die on the operating table because we didn’t have the basic tools for surgeries,” said Valentina Herrera, 35, a pediatrician at a public hospital in […]
