VENEZUELA - The Local Refineries & Marketing Operations.

There are six oil refineries in Venezuela, all owned and run by PDVSA which has the lion's share of the domestic market.

As a result of a restructuring process in late 1997, PDVSA has made major savings in its domestic refineries and marketing operations since early 1998. PDVSA's 20-year supply monopoly ended in 1997 when Congress passed a law allowing foreign companies and private Venezuelan firms to market oil products in the country. BP, Mobil (now part of ExxonMobil), Shell, Texaco (now part of ChevronTexaco) and other majors joined the country's oil retail market, together with Venezuelan firms. But the government retained the pricing of domestic petroleum products.

The situation took a negative turn for PDVSA's competitors with the coming to power of populist President Hugo Ch vez in February 1999. The foreign companies have since limited their retail operations, worried that the Ch vez government will keep the local oil market regulated and prices subsidised.

Apart from the Amuay and Cardon upgrades and the Puerto La Cruz project, two expansions completed in 1996 were the following: (1) the interconnection of the Amuay and Cardon refineries, both located on the Paraguana peninsula of Falcon state; and (2) the setting up of a catalytic distillation unit at El Palito refinery, with technology developed by PDVSA's research unit Intevep.

The linkage of Amuay and Cardon was done to optimise the product mix at both complexes, in order to produce higher quality fuels and chemicals and generate added revenues of $80m per annum. The El Palito expansion boosted production of methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether (MTBE), ter-amyl-methyl-ether (TAME) and high octane components needed to manufacture reformulated gasolines for export.

Due to plans to phase out MTBE in the US, Super Octanos in late 2000 began considering a shift of its 500,000 t/y of MTBE production to iso-octane, another gasoline additive.

Deltaven is PDVSA's local oil marketing subsidiary. Set up in July 1996, Deltaven was created in order to modernise the image of state retailing. Until the latest restructuring process, Deltaven unified the domestic marketing strategies of the then integrated PDVSA operators Lagoven, Maraven and Corpoven. These three companies were merged into PDVSA's new system in late 1998.

Deltaven has improved many of the 1,580 petrol stations it took from the three operators and now its network exceeds 1,600 stations. It markets around 100 products under the PdV brand name and logo, including engine and aviation gasolines, jet fuel, diesel, fuel oil, lubricants and greases, additives, brake fluid, asphalt and bunker fuel. These products are also marketed under the PdV brand name elsewhere in Latin America.

On Oct. 1, 1999, Deltaven began supplying the market with lead-free gasoline through hundreds of PdV service stations located in the country's main urban centres. These stations have been fitted out to supply the new fuel across the country.

The unleaded gasoline has self-cleaning characteristics, being advertised nationwide by Deltaven. By using it, Deltaven says, consumers do not only obtain the benefit of a gasoline that protects their environment, but their cars as well - "all thanks to new-generation detergent additives that are used exclusively on all types of PdV gasoline". One of main advantages of this "exclusive PdV feature" is that, by keeping the fuel system clean, it helps protect injectors, filters and other engine parts.

To help consumers spot the new gasoline outlets, the allocated stations have been clearly identified with green signs - the same colour used to identify the bays and pumps which carry the unleaded fuel. Even nozzles on the pumps are green.