 Venezuela's oil output, suspect since the strike that shut down the world's fifth-largest exporter more than two years ago, may be more than 200,000 barrels per day lower than analysts' estimates. Oil workers in the country's oldest producing region say they know why. Poor maintenance, labor unrest and corrupt management are crippling state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said Carlos Carreno, a mechanic whose contract ran out April 30. He spoke in a crowd of several hundred workers earlier this month outside the main gate of the oil terminal on Lake Maracaibo where they used to work, as National Guard troops kept watch. The workers, among those hired after the strike to help restore production, are part of a growing chorus of critics of Caracas-based Petroleos de Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez himself said May 3 there have been ``management errors'' at South America's largest oil company.
| "Yasss... Mistakes were made. It's time to move on..." |
``What's happening to Petroleos de Venezuela is truly deplorable,'' Jose Toro Hardy, a Caracas oil analyst and former board member, said in a May 11 telephone interview. ``Petroleos de Venezuela is on the verge of collapse.''
| That reinforces my contention that the best way to screw something up is to put the gummint in charge of it... |
Less oil from Venezuela, the third-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, may deepen concern supplies won't meet global needs later this year, when demand peaks as refiners make winter heating fuels. The lack of excess capacity pushed oil to a record $58.28 a barrel in New York on April 4. Venezuela's output has fallen to about 2.3 million barrels per day, said Deputy Julio Montoya, an opposition member on the assembly's energy commission, citing a new study by the commission. By comparison, the U.S. Energy Department said May 10 that April output was 2.5 million barrels. ``We have a little problem and we are fixing it,'' Chavez, 50, said in a May 3 speech in Caracas.
| "Houston, we have a problem!" |
He cited mismanagement at the state oil company, which is run by one of his closest aides, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez.
| What do you want to bet the solution to the little problem doesn't involve shooting Rafael? |
Chavez said the next day that the country's output is 3.1 million barrels a day, higher than any estimates from analysts or agencies outside the Venezuelan government. At the other extreme, union leader Luis Ortega said the country's output has fallen to 2.1 million barrels. Ortega heads Fedepetrol, the country's largest oil union, in Maracaibo, the heart of the country's western oil region. Ramirez, 41, didn't respond to requests for an interview for this article.
| "Article? Pfui. Go bother someone less important than I!" |
About half of the country's oil is produced by Petroleos de Venezuela. The rest is pumped by foreign companies, such as San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. and Paris-based Total SA, or by joint ventures the international oil companies control. These haven't been affected by the recent turmoil. Petroleos de Venezuela fired more than half of its workforce to break the strike, which was aimed at ousting Chavez, after the country's oil output was cut to less than 100,000 barrels a day in December 2002 and January 2003. Afterwards, the company hired workers loyal to Chavez. Carreno and Luis Martins, also in the crowd outside the oil terminal, said they remain loyal to Chavez while growing disillusioned with the company.
More than 8,000 contract workers have been let go by the company so far this year. Carreno and Martins, who worked for Constructores Electricos Y Industriales CA, said they were trying to get their jobs back or collect severance they were promised. ``We're all backers of the president, we're all Chavistas,'' Martins said in an interview May 6. ``But Ramirez and the board aren't letting the president know what's really happening here.'' |