"For example, while the Energy Ministry is claiming that Venezuela will not raise oil production in the second semester 2002 -- and will shortly resume oil shipments to Cuba that were interrupted on April 11 -- Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega said recently that the government would hike oil output by some 400,000 barrels per day to cover a fiscal deficit estimated at more than 8 percent of GDP.Also, high-level sources in the executive committee of state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) warned that Cuba will not receive any more Venezuelan crude oil until it pays about $150 million owed for oil already received by the island, Caracas daily El Nacional reported. If Chavez attempts to force PDVSA to resume oil shipments to Cuba before Fidel Castro's regime pays its past-due debts, it is possible that the president could face renewed dissent within PDVSA that could encourage opposition forces to launch more street protests.
Apparently these sources are not former OPEC head Ali Rodriguez, who Chavez moved to President of PDVSA. Libya, Iran, etc., I bet, will exert pressure and infuse money to keep Chavez up, so to limit oil production and scare off investment in increasing capacity. The dirty little game continues, Castro carrying the water for OPEC and supplying muscle.
This is how it works, and this is why OPEC is already irrelevant. OPEC as a group decrees cuts in production, while beneath the surface all of them are paddling like crazy, straining to increase production.
Temporary shutdowns for maintenance purposes are masked as cuts in production, which are forgotten as soon as the equipment is ready to go back on line.
OPEC is finished. The largest new fields are in non-OPEC countries, and the OPEC countries are mostly bankrupt and are unable to affect the market. Every barrel they refuse to pump is a barrel immediately replaced by Russian, or Mexican, or Azeri oil, and they know it.