VENEZUELA - Part 1 - The Prospects, Geology & Exploration.Venezuela now can produce 3.821m b/d of oil and condensates, up from a capacity of 3m b/d in 1994. But unlike the previous regime, Caracas under President Hugo Chavez is deeply committed to OPEC's price defence. It is the most compliant with the output target among OPEC OPEC: see Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.OPEC in full Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Multinational organization established in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum production and export policies of its members. Its quota from April 1, 1999 to end-March 2000 is 2.72m b/d. Its current output is 2.73m b/d, excluding condensates which are not part of the OPEC quota system Quota System can refer to:
The production capacity breaks down as follows: about 1.5m b/d of light crude oils and condensates, 1.2m b/d of heavy crude oils, and 1.121m b/d of medium crude oils. It excludes Orimulsion, a blend of 70% extra heavy oil and 30% water, pumped and transported as a fuel for power generation. After Chavez took office in early 1999, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA PDVSA Petroleos De Venezuela, SA ) dropped a $70 bn plan to raise the production capacity to 6.5m b/d for crude oil, condensate condensate, matter in the form of a gas of atoms, molecules, or elementary particles that have been so chilled that their motion is virtually halted and as a consequence they lose their separate identities and merge into a single entity. and NGL NGL - A dialect of IGL. by 2010, excluding Orimulsion. Instead it adopted a new plan under which the capacity will be limited to 5.5m b/d by 2010. PDVSA said world demand for oil and gas liquids by then would be between 85-92m b/d and the call on Venezuela would be around 4.8-5.2m b/d. Caracas is concentrating on natural gas, rather than on oil, and new E&P openings for foreign companies and Venezuela's private sector will be for gas (see exploration and the new E&P regime in Gas Market Trends). Despite its being leftist left·ism also Left·ism n. 1. The ideology of the political left. 2. Belief in or support of the tenets of the political left. left and opposed to the liberal measures of the previous regime, Caracas has a long list of energy-related and industrial projects for the private sector. The first IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) A protocol for printing and managing print jobs over the Internet using HTTP. Initially conceived by Novell, Xerox and others, the IETF made it a standard in 2000 that includes authentication and encryption. See printing protocol and LPD. venture in the country is building three power plants in the central-northern industrial belt as a JV involving US and local companies (see Downstream Trends). The new PDVSA management has not altered any of the upstream deals with foreign oil companies signed by the previous one. But because of a radical new constitution being prepared and a shifting energy policy, some foreign companies are beginning to consider leaving Venezuela. Also many of the 70 foreign oil companies operating in the country have realised that the previous PDVSA management had offered them the least profitable fields, while the state concern retained the most attractive. For example, PDVSA has an oil production cost of $1.90/barrel, while the other operators on average face production costs above $5/b (see Part 2). PDVSA is one of the world's main oil exporters and wants to revive plans to export gas in LNG LNG (liquefied natural gas): see under natural gas. form (see Part 3), with downstream assets covering important parts of the US and European markets (see Part 4). The petroleum sector still has highly qualified decision makers, from those in charge of the ministry of energy and mines to those in PDVSA (see who's who Who’s Who biographical dictionary of notable living people. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 922] See : Fame in DT & Gas Market Trends No. 26). |
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