Venezuela's energy minister says state oil company struggling with 'operational emergency'

International Herald Tribune/AP ^ | July 24, 2007 | staff

[saganite]

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's state oil company is struggling with an "operational emergency" because it has not been able to hire enough oil drilling rigs, the country's oil minister said in published remarks Tuesday.

Rafael Ramirez told the El Universal daily that Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, needs to hire dozens more rigs to reach rising production targets.

-snip

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which collects and analyzes statistics related to the international oil market, calculates that oil output in Venezuela — a major supplier of crude to the United States — has fallen to 2.37 million barrels a day, down from 2.6 million barrels a day a year ago.

[saganite]

Breaks my heart

[dfwgator]

[Ben Mugged]

it has not been able to hire enough oil drilling rigs

Borrow some from EXXON.....

Morons.....

[Just mythoughts]

Obviously I am not in the oil business but where exactly does one go to hire enough oil drilling rigs?

[Resolute Conservative]

You mean steal.

[PAR35]

Come on folks - send your rigs down there so that the communists can seize them.

[Dan(9698)]

They are expensive and expensive to run.

If there is a chance they will be “nationalized” nobody will show up with a rig.

[SAJ]

Bingo! Hand the man a see-gar!

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

So, Hugo, how is that oil nationalization thing working out for you?

[tsmith130]

Boo-friggin’-hoo!

[SAJ]

(ping) for eine kleine Schadenfreude for Hugito.

[ontap]

It appears that Hugo the genius has run all the oil companies off and doesn’t have anyone who knows how to operate the machinery.

[saganite]

Couldn’t post the whole article but it says they’re contracting with the Chinese to build some. They should work about a week, then break.

[TChris]

Obviously I am not in the oil business but where exactly does one go to hire enough oil drilling rigs?

I think he could go to his local Home Depot and find oil rigs looking for work.

[PAR35]

but where exactly does one go to hire enough oil drilling rigs?

Houston's a good place to start. Or try online (first hit on Google - deal with them at your own risk) http://www.buyrigs.com/lease.html

[griswold3]

LOL

[Bobibutu]

Obviously I am not in the oil business but where exactly does one go to hire enough oil drilling rigs?

Generally one would lease out drilling rights on state owned lands or waters and then the Oil Cos. would move their rigs in to do the deed.

These people are brain dead. Besides I would venture that there are no idle rigs anywhere on the planet with oil @ $70 and the possibility of $100 looming strong.

[Ben Mugged]

They already stole their infrastructure from EXXON, now they need to convince EXXON to allow them access to more drilling equipment so they can steal that too.

[1rudeboy]

Venezuela's state oil company is struggling with an "operational
emergency" because it has not been able to hire enough oil drilling rigs . . . .

[MeanWestTexan]

These things happen when you kick out all the people who know what the Hell they are doing.

Can’t wait till they have a well fire; like Brown & Root will talk to them.

[DeFault User]

Here's one he might get for a reasonable fee, kind of a fixer-upper:

[CHEE]

They can always count on going to Castro and Hollywood to help them out of the bind. I have an old post hole digger (Manuel of course) that I would be more than happy to lease to them. Cash on the barrel head, of course.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Venezuela's state oil company is struggling with an "operational emergency"

One ringy dingy.

[Just mythoughts]

They are expensive and expensive to run. If there is a chance they will be “nationalized” nobody will show up with a rig.

I can understand the expense part what did not make sense was the image given had to be oil business lingo in what was described an impossible action for the South American oil king to perform.

[Bobibutu]

“Couldn’t post the whole article but it says they’re contracting with the Chinese to build some.”

With the demand for steel in China for domestic construction and rigs under construction at all time highs - I’m sure Hugo & Co. will go to the head of the line.

And ya never know - the Chinese are after all the oil they can get.

[Calvin Locke]

Craig’s List?

[1rudeboy]

She said I could give her a ride home, but left without me.
Do you think the parrot was a bit, much?

[Just mythoughts]

I think he could go to his local Home Depot and find oil rigs looking for work.

LOL.... I was kinda asking from that perspective and would a new trend begin with cheap labor needed in a southern direction... but wasn't sure exactly what was being said.

[Just mythoughts]

Houston's a good place to start. Or try online (first hit on Google - deal with them at your own risk) http://www.buyrigs.com/lease.html

Ok thanks, but doesn't the literal hiring of the rigs mean that you are required to hire someone to use them?

[Bobibutu]

Further - the Chinese may just jump all over this ... this would be “Developmental” drilling vs “Exploratory” drilling. i.e., they already know the oil is there and where it is - just need more pumps to get production up.

[ridesthemiles]

It appears that Hugo the genius has run all the oil companies off and doesn’t have anyone who knows how to operate the machinery.”

Reminds me of the theory of putting a monkey into a room with a typewriter and a pile of paper and expecting it to produce the next literary novel.....

[Just mythoughts]

Generally one would lease out drilling rights on state owned lands or waters and then the Oil Cos. would move their rigs in to do the deed. These people are brain dead. Besides I would venture that there are no idle rigs anywhere on the planet with oil @ $70 and the possibility of $100 looming strong.

Thank you that helps me better understand what was written. Given it is Chavez, the South American oil king I can't help but wonder the actual effect is going to be another hit on our economy. I just never know what I am actually being told when I read things like this.

[Toddsterpatriot]

But I don't want to be a pirate.

[PAR35]

Craig’s List?

Don't you think that they'd be too liberal to list rigs?

[PAR35]

Finding the people should be easier than finding the rigs. Lots of experienced folks in Siberia would be happy for a tropical vacation and payment in hard currency.

But no one is going to be willing to risk a production rig without a lot of cash to make it worth the risk. There are too many safe places to park a rig at current prices.

[Just mythoughts]

Finding the people should be easier than finding the rigs. Lots of experienced folks in Siberia would be happy for a tropical vacation and payment in hard currency. But no one is going to be willing to risk a production rig without a lot of cash to make it worth the risk. There are too many safe places to park a rig at current prices.

Thank you for the insight. Well since Putin is such good buds with Chavez what happens next may well be in Putin's own best interest. Chavez may well be in over his head.

[Calvin Locke]

"Rig, Drilling, for extracting the pure life-giving water (and other liquids) of Mother Gaia."

[ontap]

How can you live with yourself after comparing a intelligent animal such as a monkey with Hugo Chavez. I expect you to enroll in sensitivity classes immediately.

[Bob J]

Lack of an increase in oil drilling rigs would account for their being no expansion of production, but it certainly wouldn't explain why there has been a decrease.

Lose a few rigs somewhere Hugo?

[ontap]

I figured it out for Hugo. Pass a law that all oil will be dispensed on a self service basis. Then the supertankers can just pull up fill up and put it on their debit card.

[BlazingArizona]

Bingo! Hand the man a see-gar!

And it better be one of Castro's

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You’re 100 percent right. More than a few Venezuelan chemical engineers and refinery operations staff have moved to the US and Canada to escape Hugo’s revolution...

[Mase]

Venezuela's state oil company is struggling with an "operational emergency...."

[SAJ]

Goes without saying...

;^)

[bert]

Houston

[shield]

LOL...that’s the commie state of affairs...capitalism works

[dennisw]

They already stole their infrastructure from EXXON, now they need to convince EXXON to allow them access to more drilling equipment so they can steal that too.

That's like when the Chinese sent a train full of food and relief supplies to North Korea and the North Koreans kept the train too

[razorback-bert]

I worked with a Chinese built rig, broke down daily, we drilled with one pump for two weeks awaiting parts for the other. So far all the Chinese drill pipe I have seen used has been weak and causes many trips out of the hole for holes in the pipe.

The rig I am working with right just changed out a string of Chinese pipe because of holes, we were really lucky on one, just missed twisting off and having to go on a fishing trip.

[saganite]

Don’t they pressure check that pipe before they send it down the hole? When I worked in the patch (almost 30 years ago!) all the pipe was tested.

[aruanan]

Venezuela's energy minister says state oil company struggling with 'operational emergency'

Ha ha. I was going to say that the leftist politicos probably don't know crap about running a successful oil industry.