Venezuela imports fuel as oil sector still halted

Reuters ^ | December 26, 2002

[Dog Gone]

Venezuela imports fuel as oil sector still halted

Reuters News Service

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's government struggled to meet domestic fuel needs today while external shipments from the world's No. 5 oil exporter were still slashed due to a strike by opponents of President Hugo Chavez.

The 25-day work stoppage has slowed the OPEC member country's international oil sales to a trickle at around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared with 2.7 million bpd in November.

Many managers and executives at state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as well as refinery laborers, tanker captains and dock crews have joined the stoppage, forcing South America's largest oil producer, which normally supply over 13 percent of U.S. imports, to buy fuel in the international market.

The disruption to Venezuelan exports has pushed U.S. oil prices to their highest level in almost two years, with New York futures jumping as high as $32.50 a barrel today.

In an effort to restart the oil sector, Chavez has sacked dozens of dissident PDVSA employees and sent troops, pro-government loyalists and some foreign workers to take over strike-bound tankers, refineries and port terminals.

PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez has insisted that efforts to break the strike would soon return the industry, which provides about 50 percent of government revenues, to normal. Government strike breakers have only managed to maintain very limited exports and no substantive oil production has been restored.

"We will return to work when we achieve our objectives, specifically the departure of Hugo Chavez and a call for elections," said a resolution overwhelmingly approved by dissident PDVSA employees meeting in Caracas.

EXPORTER TURNED IMPORTER

"Every Venezuelan knows that the petroleum industry is not going to be returned to normal with the people that they (the government) have nor if they bring people from every nation. This is a complex industry, very specialized," anti-government PDVSA executive Jorge Kamkoff said in a Thursday interview with local radio.

The Chavez administration is attempting to load products stored at the nearly shut down 335,000 bpd Curacao Isla refinery, rented by PDVSA, to alleviate an acute domestic gasoline shortage. Venezuela has used part of its limited crude export capacity to restart supplies to the Curacao plant in hopes that it can resume operations.

Although domestic oil consumption, about 400,000 bpd last month, has fallen sharply during the stoppage, the government has been forced to buy products abroad as the nation's 1.3 million bpd refining system is only processing 60,000 bpd.

Brazilian oil giant Petrobrasshipped 520,000 barrels of gasoline to Venezuela Wednesday, a Petrobras spokesman said.

LIMITED EXPORTS

Venezuelan government replacement crews continued to dispatch ships at reduced rates. The Zeus sailed to the United States carrying 600,000 barrels of crude, while the Eos, laden with 500,000 barrels of oil, sailed for the Isla refinery in Curacao, officials and shippers said.

The Venture, chartered to load 370,000 barrel of crude from the Las Salinas port in Lake Maracaibo for Chile, also sailed today after completing loadings started three days ago, shippers reported.

Exports can only continue as long Venezuela has oil in storage, as crude output has fallen to less than 7 percent of the 3.1 million bpd produced last month, local analysts said.

Chavez said Sunday that Venezuela had about 10 million barrels of oil in storage, of which it has exported about 25 percent in the past four days.

Only ships loaded for PDVSA and U.S. refining affiliate Citgo have been sailing, as international firms have hesitated to have vessels attended by uncertified replacement crews which incur high insurance risks.

The number of ships anchored off Venezuelan ports without instructions has fallen to just over 20, compared with more than 40 last week as many ships have sailed after failing to load cargoes.

[xsmommy]

thanks for all the venezuela info that you have been posting. i have good friends from venezuela, whose families are there and committed to ousting Chavez. i find personally very irksome, the ennui of the US with respect to this crisis to our south.

[lawdude]

If W's only concern was oil, doncha think he would be doing something with Venezuela?

[dirtboy]

If W's only concern was oil, doncha think he would be doing something with Venezuela?

Now, now, don't let the fact that we import a lot more oil from Venezuela than Iraq fool you...

[Dog Gone]

I think we'll see a lot more interest when the effects of the oil strike are fully felt and gasoline prices go up.

Apparently, the State Department is content to have no visible role in this situation in Venezuela. As long as it's purely a political struggle, and doesn't deteriorate into civil war, it appears that we'll have a hands-off approach.

But I have to believe that we're monitoring the situation closely. We have a strategic interest in getting Chavez removed and the oil flowing again.

I'm not too happy that Brazil is sending 500,000 barrels of gasoline the Venezuela, but since they just elected someone of Chavez's ilk, it's not terribly surprising. We need to stop the spread of leftists in key countries in the hemisphere.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[RightWhale]

The disruption to Venezuelan exports has pushed U.S. oil prices to their highest level in almost two years, with New York futures jumping as high as $32.50 a barrel today.

Bulk gasoline is rising in price as well.

[Dog Gone]

From Platts:

Caracas (Platts)--26Dec2002

Venezuela's Energy Ministry Thursday guaranteed gasoline and cooking gas supplies in Caracas, saying a tanker carrying 230,000 bbl of gasoline and 50,000 bbl of diesel would arrive at the terminal serving Caracas Friday. Fuel supplies have been running low in Caracas and much of Venezuela because of the nation's 25-day-old general strike.

The tanker Pilin Leon left the idled, 940,000 b/d Paraguana refining complex in the western state of Falcon Wednesday and is expected to arrive at the Carenero terminal serving Caracas Friday, officials said. Another tanker carrying 35,000 bbl of LPG is also supposed to arrive at Carenero Friday.

The ministry said another tanker, the Moruy, left PDVSA's Isla refinery in Curacao Wednesday with 200,000 bbl of fuel bound for the company's 120,000 b/d El Palito refinery in the central state of Carabobo. This ship will also discharge Friday.

El Palito feeds the Yagua fuel distribution plant which supplies the center of the country. The government said the tanker Zeus had sailed Wednesday with 600,000 bbl of crude to the US. It did not say where the tanker had loaded nor where it was bound for.

The Eros also left Wednesday, the government said, with 500,000 bbl of crude to Curacao's Isla refinery.

This appears to be a shuffling around of some tankers and products which were stranded in ports at the start of the strike. It appears that at least a couple of tankers of crude are headed to Citgo's American refineries, but I wouldn't see this as an easing of the problem.

[shanec]

"I think we'll see a lot more interest when the effects of the oil strike are fully felt and gasoline prices go up."

I agree and am glad for anything that helps get the spotlight turned on the Chavez regime, but the oil impact here, IMO, is one of the least important reasons for US govt & media to get interested.

Click this banner below for the newly released English language versions of the cutting-edge expose's of Chavez regime (like his Cuban Bio-Weapon's Lab & support of Saddam's Iraq, Al Qaeda, Columbian guerillas, drug trade, etc.) direct from his top military who have just left him and have first-hand knowledge of it all...

See more banners, like the above, and grab the html to post them elsehwere, too, here...
http://www.militaresdemocraticos.com/en/enlazanos.html

-Shane

[Dog Gone]

I encourage everyone to click through to the site you linked. It has a lot of good background information, and is a quality site.

The American media tends to report on two things, what Americans want to know about, and what the press thinks they should know. When Americans start complaining about prices at the pump, the press will make a much bigger deal out of it than they are now.

It's starting to get pretty good coverage on the Gulf Coast now, because that's where the shortage of Venezuelan crude is first felt.

I realize, and agree, that the political conflict in Venezuela is more important the economic effects in that country and how they will impact America. But, it's just a fact of life that average Americans don't consider anything south of our border as being very important or interesting, until it affects them personally.

[Capt. Tom]

I just ordered 150 gals for Monday $1.249/gallon. I probably could have shopped around and got a better price but I went with it.

When I asked why it jumped a dime since the last time, he said trouble in Venezuela.

I said Gee, you are mising a few more excuses like:

the threat of a war in Iraq has got us into our oil reserves
-OPEC is cutting back production after the first of the year.
We are experiencing a harsh winter
and the above gives a good excuse for gouging.
And you have to get more money to make up for customers who locked in at a lower price.

He liked some of the additional reasons I gave, but said he would leave out the gouging, and raising prices to make up for the lock-ins. -Tom

[xsmommy]

. But, it's just a fact of life that average Americans don't consider anything south of our border as being very important or interesting, until it affects them personally

sadly that is very much the truth. i was a latin american studies major undergrad, and so have always had an intense interest in the region. Colombia is a totally lost cause at this point, but prior to Chavez, Venezuela was stable and democratic. My venezuelan friends were every bit as agitated over the election of Chavez, as i was over Bubba sitting in the WH. Looks like they had every reason to be.

[xsmommy]

But I have to believe that we're monitoring the situation closely. We have a strategic interest in getting Chavez removed and the oil flowing again

i agree here as well, i trust W's latin american policy so far.

[shanec]

"...i trust W's latin american policy so far."

I can't help but think they could do much more as far as vocally awakening the world communty and the American people to the 'Clear and Present Danger' the Chavez regime represents.

The govt does not need to get involved on the ground there, but from here and via the media they could be laying out all he is doing, has been doing, and has said he wants to do, and that would then be plenty enough to have him seen as the terrorist supporter he is as well as the Castroette dictator of his own people that he wants to become.

-Shane

[xsmommy]

i agree with you, but how much of it is the media's refusal to cover it and how much a lack of interest on the part of the Bush administration ? The media is loathe to portray LA leftists as bad guys in any way shape or form. And Doggone is right, the American sheeple just don't give a crap about Latin America.

[Dog Gone]

But to what effect? It doesn't appear that Venezuelans need cheerleader support from America. The opposition is not waning. If anything, it is growing.

A vocal campaign by officials in America might be used by Chavez as a way to inspire nationalism in support of himself. He'd love to be the proud anti-American voice.

I did notice that we decided to close down a couple of sections in the embassy in Caracas today. That's a minor step which will be largely ignored, especially in America, but it is a movement in the diplomatic game of chess now being played.

[xsmommy]

A vocal campaign by officials in America might be used by Chavez as a way to inspire nationalism in support of himself

this is an excellent point. as it is, the supporters are the poor and uneducated, and the opposition is the middle/upper classes, educated, traveled and more likely to have ties to the US. Chavez would certainly capitalize on visible American support for his opposition.

[shanec]

The overwhelming majority of Venezuelans both want Chavez gone and like America. According to the just published 2002 Global Attitudes Survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington; 82% have a favorable opinion of the USA, and that is amongst the highest ratings of all the 44 countries surveyed. And, in regard to supporting the US led war on terrorism, 79% favor it while only 20% oppose it!

They would be further emboldened to hear the American president both recognize and reveal to the world, via the world media that can't then ignore it, the facts of their struggle against Cubanization of their beloved country. Furthermore, wide exposure of his support of Iraq, Al Qaeda, Cuba, Libya, Columbian guerillas, bio-weapon lab, and drug trade would make it much harder for the world community to ignore the threat he represents and would invite universal condemnation of his regime.

Yes, Chavez would likely try and rally his core supporters with it, but the UN and OAS and world community would not be able to so readily proclaim his legitimacy or defend him anymore.

Think Iraq, if US govt has any right to complain at all about their WMD's, then surely we can complain about supporters of Iraq and other terrorists, too. Being silent about what's going on in Venezuela, I'm convinced, is not the moral course.

-Shane

[Dog Gone]

Venezuelans Renew Protests Against Chavez

Thursday December 26, 2002 10:40 PM

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - After a brief Christmas break, thousands of people renewed protests across Venezuela Thursday, the 25th day of a strike to force Hugo Chavez to call elections.

In Caracas, workers, journalists, business leaders, artists and politicians staged rallies under a new rallying cry: ``Freedom!''

More marches were planned to the headquarters of the state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela S.A, or PDVSA. Oil executives staged a rally shouting ``Not one step back!'' and ``We are not afraid!'' as speakers denounced government firings of striking oil workers and arrests of tanker crews.

The strike, which began Dec. 2, has shut most gasoline stations, factories and many stores, causing fuel and food shortages in this food-importing nation of 24 million.

Chavez's government is seeking food and fuel overseas.

Brazil's state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro shipped 520,000 barrels of gasoline to Venezuela. The tanker should arrive by the weekend, Brazilian officials said.

Members of the opposition Democratic Coordinator movement met with Brazil's ambassador Thursday to urge Brazil not to interfere in Venezuela's crisis by helping Chavez break the oil strike.

Venezuela will pay oil for food from the Dominican Republic, Agriculture Minister Efren Andrade said. The deal includes a rice shipment delivered Thursday by a Venezuelan navy vessel. Talks for milk and meat from Colombia are continuing.

The strike has all but stopped exports from the world's fifth-biggest oil supplier, which usually provides 14 percent of U.S. oil imports. A tanker carrying 300,000 gallons of gasoline departed for Chile, a shipping company source said Thursday. Officials couldn't immediately be reached to explain why Venezuela shipped the gas when it needs it at home.

Fears that the strike will continue well into 2003 and possible war in Iraq sent oil prices above $31 a barrel, the highest they've been in two years. Some companies have asked the Bush administration to tap into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

``This is a fight of a people who are demanding liberty!'' Timoteo Zambrano, an opposition negotiator at talks sponsored by the Organization of American States, proclaimed to deafening cheers by employees of Venezuela's oil monopoly.

``The international community cannot ask for the impossible'' - call off the strike and resume oil exports, Zambrano said.

Opposition negotiator Americo Martin said government firings of oil workers would be brought up at the OAS talks, which resumed Thursday. But government negotiator Nicolas Maduro said the government wouldn't discuss the workers' status at the OAS talks.

PDVSA president Ali Rodriguez has acknowledged total exports for December were 2 million barrels - compared to a pre-strike average of about 3 million barrels a day.

Rodriguez also said Venezuela will re-establish domestic gas supplies in January - a goal dismissed as impossible by PDVSA executives who argue that 35,000 skilled and striking workers cannot simply be replaced or that a giant oil company can simply restart operations.

Oil workers are ignoring a Supreme Court injunction ordering them to work until the court decides if the strike is legal.

Zambrano said the opposition wants Chavez to quit or call a nonbinding referendum in early 2003 and, if he loses, call presidential elections. The opposition also wants guarantees of job security for striking oil workers.

Venezuela's opposition delivered 2 million signatures demanding the nonbinding vote. The national elections council scheduled the vote for Feb. 2 and is updating voter lists, though it's unknown if Chavez's government will abide by or pay for a vote. It has challenged the validity of council members in what critics call a tactic to delay a vote.

Chavez, whose six-year term runs to January 2007, says early elections require changing Venezuela's constitution, a process that must be done in the Chavez-dominated National Assembly. The assembly also would deal with another proposal: reducing presidential terms to four years.

The president has welcomed the possibility of a binding referendum on his presidency in August 2003, or halfway into his term, as permitted by the constitution. Opponents cite a constitutional clause allowing Venezuelans not to recognize a government they consider undemocratic.

[Paulus Invictus]

Brazil's new president is a confirmed commie and he will do all he can to assist Chavez. Birds of a feather...