Category: Venezuela

MARGARITA, Venezuela, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The recent slide in global oil prices puts projects under heavy pressure, executives at two major production companies told an industry conference in Venezuela on Wednesday. A four-month rout, which stemmed from signs of lower growth and oil demand in Europe coupled with expectations that OPEC’s core Gulf members are in no hurry to cut production, has left Brent crude below $85. "This scenario puts projects … in Venezuela under big pressure," Chevron Latin America Managing Director Kelly Hartshorn said at the Margarita Island gathering. U.S.-based Chevron and state oil company PDVSA operate the Petroboscan heavy crude joint venture in western Venezuela. Chevron also has a share in the Petropiar oil upgrader in the Orinoco belt. Separately, Statoil Venezuela official Luisa Cipollitti said at the conference that "mega-projects" globally were under threat from the price fall. "Prices … have fallen and we don’t […]

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Caracas claims win in court case involving seizure of Exxon assets. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) — The government of Venezuela declared victory following a ruling by an international court regarding Exxon Mobil claims on the country’s offshore oil. The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which receives funding from the World Bank, ruled Venezuela must pay Exxon Mobil $1.6 billion for taking over assets in 2007. That’s far less than the $16.6 billion Exxon wanted, giving the government in Caracas a claim to victory. "Once again, Venezuela, its government, institutions and workers have confronted and [have] been able to defeat the aggressions of the powerful transnational interests," a statement published Thursday read. The court, in its 138-page ruling , said the compensation is owed "for the expropriation of [Exxon Mobil’s] investments in the Cerro Negro project [in the Orinoco belt]." Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved […]

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was awarded a $1.6 billion settlement by an international arbitration panel for assets seized by Venezuela ’s government in 2007, a fraction of what the crude producer had sought. The World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, awarded the sum to Irving, Texas-based Exxon as compensation for investments in the Cerro Negro project and other losses, according to a on the ICSID website today. The world’s most valuable had originally sought as much as $14.7 billion for assets nationalized after it refused to accept terms of a partnership with Petroleos de Venezuela SA. “Our goal with the arbitration was to seek compensation for the fair market value of assets that were expropriated,” Exxon said in an e-mailed statement. “Exxon Mobil’s affiliate engaged in extensive discussions with PDVSA and government officials but was unable to reach agreement on fair compensation.” President Hugo Chavez ’s handpicked successor, […]

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Caracas (Platts)–3Oct2014/509 pm EDT/2109 GMT The average price of Venezuela’s oil basket fell 76 cents/barrel to $85.89/b for the week of September 29-October 3, the country’s Oil and Mining Ministry said Friday. The prices of the country’s main crude grades continued to fall, affected mainly by signals of a slowdown in the global economy and abundant supply of crude oil in the market, the ministry said. The monthly average for September was $89.27/b, compared with $103.75/b in September 2013. The monthly average for October is $85.89 /b, compared with $97.31/b in October 2013, the ministry said. The year-to-date average fell to $95.29/b in the most recent week from $96.23/b a week earlier. The basket price is an average of 70% crude oil (light, medium and heavy) and 30% refined products. The crude oil includes the Bachaquero, Boscan, Laguna, Merey, Mesa 30, Santa Barbara and Leona 24 grades. The refined […]

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Petroleos de Venezuela SA hired a public relations agency founded by Margaret Thatcher ’s press adviser, two people familiar with the matter said, as Venezuela sells U.S. refineries and responds to World Bank court rulings. PDVSA, as the state-owned oil producer is known, contracted Tim Bell’s Bell Pottinger Private in May to improve its image abroad, said the people, who asked not to be identified because it hasn’t been made public. It’s the first time the company has hired an international PR firm since late-President Hugo Chavez began his so-called Bolivarian revolution in 1999. PDVSA, which accounts for 97 percent of Venezuela’s dollar earnings, is struggling to fund record social spending and subsidies, leading to shortages of everything from razors to flour in a country with the largest oil reserves. President Nicolas Maduro , Chavez’s handpicked replacement, is facing the world’s fastest inflation and foreign reserves near 11-year lows. […]

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President Nicolas Maduro ’s removal of his main economic and oil policy maker improves Venezuela’s chances of tapping more of the world’s largest crude reserves, according to Barclays Plc and Medley Global Advisors LLC. While Rafael Ramirez ’s exit from the posts of vice president for economy and energy minister dims hopes for economic reform, it may give his successor at Petroleos de Venezuela SA the opportunity to focus more on the job of pumping oil. Besides running PDVSA, Ramirez oversaw the exchange system and housing programs among other non-oil duties. His deputy on the PDVSA board, Eulogio Del Pino, will take over as part of a series of government changes unveiled by Maduro on Sept. 2. With a master’s degree in exploration from Stanford University , Del Pino oversaw the company’s operations and coordinated agreements with international oil firms as head of Corporacion Venezolana del Petroleo, or CVP. […]

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Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas on Tuesday night. He disappointed investors with a cabinet shake-up. Reuters CARACAS, Venezuela—In recent weeks, the government here hinted it was considering controversial steps to ease a deepening economic crisis, including raising the price of gasoline. But on Tuesday night, in a widely anticipated address, President Nicolás Maduro didn’t unveil any major economic adjustments. Instead, the president announced a cabinet shake-up that removed Rafael Ramírez, the powerful oil minister, who was seen as a proponent of modest changes. Investors didn’t take long to deliver their verdict. The price of Venezuela’s benchmark bond on Wednesday fell hard for the second consecutive day to levels last seen in April, while yields on some bonds from Petróleos de Venezuela climbed to nearly 15%, among the highest in emerging markets. "All of those promises have fallen flat because he […]

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Residents of a neighborhood in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, block traffic with burning tires to protest a broken sewer main. (Nick Miroff/The Washington Post) Long before Hugo Chávez launched his socialist revolution, government planners came here to Venezuela’s eastern frontier, where the mighty Orinoco and Caroni rivers converge, and envisioned an industrial workers’ paradise. President Rómulo Betancourt, a key partner in John F. Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress,” founded the city in 1961, inviting his countrymen to turn Ciudad Guayana into a tropical Pittsburgh. More than a city, “it felt like you were building a country,” said Alfredo Rivas, who arrived as a young engineer and went on to become president of the huge steelworks here. A half-century later and 15 years after Chávez came to power, Ciudad Guayana’s factories are crippled, starved for investment and roiled by labor disputes. So faint is Betancourt’s vision that his own monument is coated […]

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Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro speaks at a news conference in Caracas on Tuesday. Reuters CARACAS—Rafael Ramírez, who has overseen Venezuela’s oil industry for more than a decade, was removed from that role late Tuesday in a cabinet shake-up announced by President Nicolás Maduro. As part of the shake-up, Mr. Ramírez was appointed foreign minister. Venezuela’s then-energy minister, Rafael Ramírez, attends an OPEC meeting in December 2011 in Vienna. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Mr. Ramírez had served as Mr. Maduro’s top economic adviser and was scheduled to lead an investor roadshow this month in New York in search of financing for the cash-strapped government. He was one of the most vocal proponents of economic overhauls such as slashing domestic gasoline subsidies and simplifying a cumbersome foreign-exchange system, two areas where the government has been bleeding money. The cabinet changes come as Mr. Maduro’s approval rating has tumbled to 35.4% as he […]

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Venezuela’s state-owned oil company has hired a French bank to help offload Citgo, its U.S. downstream entity, an executive at the company said.  A senior official at state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, Continue Reading