Venezuela’s actual level of oil production is difficult to determine, with the country and independent industry analysts offering differing estimates. Most industry analysts and EIA estimate that the country produced around 2.8 million bbl/d of oil in 2006. These estimates conclude that the country has not fully recovered from the strikes of 2002-2003. Another factor that complicates comparisons of Venezuelan oil production estimates are methodological and classification issues. For example, EIA estimates that, of Venezuela’s 2.8 million bbl/d of oil production, 2.5 million bbl/d was crude oil and 300,000 bbl/d was condensate, natural gas liquids (NGL), and Orimulsion (see below). On the other hand, it is unclear what “other liquids” are included in official estimates of oil production. Another methodological issue is the measuring of crude oil production by the four extra-heavy strategic associations (see below). Some analysts count the extra-heavy oil produced by the associations as part of Venezuela’s crude oil production. Others (including EIA) count the upgraded syncrude produced by the four as part of Venezuela’s crude oil production, which is about 10 percent lower than the volume of the original extra-heavy feedstock.
PdVSA
It is difficult to assess how much oil PdVSA actually produces, due to the issues discussed above. Independent analysts and EIA estimate that the company produced around 1.6 million bbl/d of crude oil in 2006, or around 60 percent of Venezuela’s total crude oil production. This amount also includes 100,000 bbl/d of oil production that was transferred from the former OSA companies to PdVSA. This represents a decrease of 30 percent below independent estimates of pre-strike PdVSA crude oil production of 2.2 million bbl/d.
Venezuela has four major sedimentary basins: Maracaibo, Falcon, Apure, and Oriental. The crude oil held in these fields has an average API gravity of less than 20°, making Venezuela's conventional crude oil heavy by international standards. As a result, much of Venezuela’s oil production must go to specialized domestic and international refineries. The Maracaibo basin contains slightly less than half of PdVSA’s oil production. The fields in this area are very mature, requiring heavy investment to maintain current capacity. Centers of production in the area include Tomoporo, Lagunillas, and Tiajuana. In order to mitigate steep decline rates in the Maracaibo Basin, PdVSA re-injects natural gas into the reservoirs in order to increase pressure. In general, the fields in the Oriental basin are less mature than those in the west, and they were some of the first fields brought online after the 2002-2003 strike.
Because of self experience, the last thing you can trust, is, in the word of untrustworthy people and, most definitivelly, hugo IS that kind of the people. Your article says it all.
Quote:
Investment in Maintaining/Expanding Production
Industry analysts estimate that PdVSA must spend some $3 billion each year just to maintain production levels at existing fields, as many of these fields suffer annual decline rates of at least 25 percent. Affecting PdVSA’s ability to meet its investment goals are the increasing demands placed upon its finances by the Venezuelan government. In 2004, the Venezuelan government established a special development fund to finance infrastructure projects throughout the country; PdVSA will supply billions of dollars per year directly to this fund. The company also funds additional social programs directly from its budget. These new priorities divert billions of dollars per year away from oil-related activities. Along with these directly-administered programs, PdVSA pays billons of dollars each year to the Venezuelan government in the form of income taxes and royalties.
How would you spell bankrupsy, when, it is CITGO, who has to stretch out its borrowing hand, in order to find those fundings late pdvsa needs to fulfil its very government´s financial demmands?
Joined: Mar 26, 2008 Posts: 1159 Location: Seattle
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 12:24 am Post subject: Re: Venezuela's oil reserves swell to 130 bln barrels
^
Well, all I can say is, with oil at over $120/barrel, money would not seem to be one of PdVSA's problem. _________________ Abundance - what a concept!
Joined: Sep 11, 2007 Posts: 340 Location: In freefall speed right down to the claws of the devil
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject: Re: Venezuela's oil reserves swell to 130 bln barrels
Ohhh ....... I see you are one of the few that misses my posts, hehe!!
Now, seriously, also I gather you ignore pdvsa is out of of the S.E.C because of rather dark handlings of its financial operations, right?
No problem, that´s why I´m here for. Not to negatively propagandise, as some others might say, but to put an end to, precisely, that costly propagandistic campaign, this bunch of outlaws, are dedicated to spread away, because of the lack of tangible legacy and/or works-results versus resources "invested" into them and precisely some of you are the victims of such misleading campaign.
Of course, you don´t have to take my word for it so there you have the links regarding both my comments.
Quote:
CARACAS/NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Citgo, a U.S. unit of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, has negotiated a $1 billion loan to repay debt held by an oil project that Venezuela recently wrested from Exxon Mobil, officials said on Wednesday.
The added burden of the loan on Citgo's books prompted Fitch Ratings on Wednesday to downgrade Citgo's credit rating a notch further into junk bond territory, lowering it to "BB-."
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told a newspaper that PDVSA plans to use the proceeds of the loan to buy back $630 million of bonds issued for the Cerro Negro project, until recently majority owned by Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research). A PDVSA press officer confirmed the story.
Actually it was a couple of billions the loan but who´s counting right?. The other billion was on behalf of pdval (subsidiary of pdvsa) to buy the basic products this country is in need of, because the lack of responsable management.
Quote:
Last March 15 the Caracas newspaper “Reporte Diario de la Economia” published the headline: “Petroleos de Venezuela presents false financial statements”, adding below that the company had reported losses for almost $3 billion for 2006. Inside this issue, in page 4, there was an extensive report signed by Leocenis Garcia, in which three 2006 financial statements for Petroleos de Venezuela are shown. All three contain different figures. Hugo Chavez presented one of the statements to the National Assembly January 13, 2007. The Minister of Mines and Petroleum, who is also the President of the Company, presented a second statement January 15, 2007. Still the Vice-president of the republic presented a third statement to the national Assembly in February 27, 2007.
However, this was not the end of the story. A fourth set of financial figures, also non – audited, were published by the Petroleos de Venezuela on March 23, 2007, in connection with an emission of bonds for some $5 billion. This last set of figures is completely different to the other three. This situation calls either for financial experts or psychiatrists, probably both, to make sense of the differences.
Joined: Mar 26, 2008 Posts: 1159 Location: Seattle
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: Venezuela's oil reserves swell to 130 bln barrels
OilFinder2 wrote:
pana_burda wrote:
Why borrowing money then?
Where does it say they're borrowing money?
pana_burda wrote:
Ohhh ....... I see you are one of the few that misses my posts, hehe!!
[...]
Quote:
CARACAS/NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Citgo, a U.S. unit of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, has negotiated a $1 billion loan to repay debt held by an oil project that Venezuela recently wrested from Exxon Mobil, officials said on Wednesday.
The added burden of the loan on Citgo's books prompted Fitch Ratings on Wednesday to downgrade Citgo's credit rating a notch further into junk bond territory, lowering it to "BB-." PDVSA plans to use the proceeds of the loan to buy back $630 million of bonds issued for the Cerro Negro project, until recently majority owned by Exxon Mobil. A PDVSA press officer confirmed the story.
In this case, it seems they need a large short-term loan to pay back an immediate debt because they kicked Exxon out of their project. Even healthy companies with large cash flows borrow money frequently. Sometimes you just have a short-term need for more cash than you happen to have in the bank.
At any rate, I have no doubt PdVsa is poorly-run (hence the BB- rating). But I also don't doubt all that oil is really there. Here's a good paper on the topic:
--> Comparing Venezuelan and Vanadian Heavy Oil and Tar Sands (PDF) <--
^
On page 2, it says there are approximately 1.2 trillion barrels of oil-in-place in the Venezuelan oil sands, so it wouldn't surprise me to see them eventually book large amounts of reserve there. Starting on page 14 it describes extraction of the Venezuelan oil sands, you can actually extract the stuff there using more-or-less conventional drilling technology (that is, you don't need to dig it up and mine it). _________________ Abundance - what a concept!
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