(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 29.Sep.2018) â Venezuelaâs Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo announced the South American country would continue to seek equilibrium in the petroleum market. âUnder the leadership of President NicolĂĄs Maduro, we will continue to defend a policy of equilibrium and stabilization in the world oil market, having […]
Tag: OPEC
Venezuela Faces Fresh Blow With Ship-Fuel Rules Threatening Exports
(Bloomberg, 27.Sep.2018) â New rules forcing ships to use cleaner marine fuels may deal yet another blow to cash-strapped Petroleos de Venezuela SA, an exporter of high-sulfur fuel oil. From Jan. 1, 2020, vessels will have to switch to less-polluting bunker fuel or be fitted with equipment to curb emissions, […]
PetroMonagas, PetroVictoria Rumored to Have Changed President
(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 26.Sep.2018) â The president of the two Venezuelan joint venture companies is rumored to have been changed, according to reports in the daily Noticias Venezuela. The executive, Edgar Sifontes, is said to have left his position at the helms of both companies, reported the daily, […]
Venezuela Doubles Down on Chinese Money to Reverse Crisis
(AP, 20.Sep.2018) â Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday that new investments from China will help his country dramatically boost its oil production, doubling down on financing from the Asian nation to turn around its crashing economy. Already a major economic partner, China has agreed to invest US$5 billion more […]
OPEC’s Decade of Turmoil Leaves Cartel Seeking a New Way Forward
(Bloomberg, Christopher Sell, 20.Sep.2018) â A global recession, both $140 and $30 oil, the U.S. shale revolution, a market-share war, and output cuts. OPECâs 60-year history has rarely confronted a more challenging period than the past decade. Now, instead of enjoying the higher prices resulting from 18 months of joint […]
Nicolas Maduro Says Venezuela to Double Oil Production
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 18.Sep.2018) â Venezuela, the struggling OPEC producer, is now planning to double its production of crude oil, according to statements from the country’s president. âWith revolutionary spirit we will double the productive capacity of PDVSA,â announced Venezuelaâs President Nicolas Maduro during a press conference in […]
IEA Warns of Higher Oil Prices as Iran and Venezuela Losses Deepen
(Bloomberg, Grant Smith. 13.Sep.2018) â The International Energy Agency warned that oil prices could break out above $80 a barrel unless other producers act to offset deepening supply losses in Iran and Venezuela. Iranian crude exports have fallen significantly before U.S. sanctions even take effect, the IEA said in a […]
Venezuela’s Aug. 2018 Oil Output Continues Decline: OPEC MOMR
(Energy Analytics Institute, Jared Yamin, 12.Sep.2018) â Venezuelaâs oil production seems on an unstoppable downward trend. The OPEC countryâs production of crude oil fell 2.9 percent to 1,235 thousand barrels per day (Mb/d) in August 2018 compared to 1,272 Mb/d in July 2018, according to data published in OPECâs Monthly […]
Jamaica’s Economy Gets $5 Bln From PetroCaribe Over 13 Years
(CMC, 12.Sep.2018) â Jamaica says it has benefitted from projects estimated at US$5 billion under the Venezuela-led PetroCaribe initiative over the past 13 years. CEO of the Petro-Caribe Development Fund Dr Wesley Hughes said the contributions of the fund to Jamaica have been âmeaningful and significantâ. Speaking earlier this week […]
Venezuela Constituent Assembly Seeks to Woo Private Oil Investment
(Reuters, Mayela Armas, 12.Sep.2018) â An overhaul of Venezuelaâs constitution being prepared by the pro-government Constituent Assembly will likely include changes intended to attract private investment in the countryâs oil fields, according to two assembly members. Production by the OPEC nationâs oil industry is at a 60-year low, leaving President […]
PDVSA To Reopen Damaged Port Dock By Month’s End
(Reuters, Marianna Parraga, 12.Sep.2018) â PDVSA expects to reopen the south dock of Venezuelaâs main oil port Jose by the end of September, easing strains on crude exports delayed due to a tanker collision last month, according to internal trade documents from the state-run oil firm seen by Reuters. Last […]
Ecuador Holds Open Licensing Round for Eight Onshore Blocks
(World Oil, 12.Sep.2018) â Carlos PĂ©rez Garcia, Minister of Energy and Non-renewable Resources in Ecuador has announced an open licensing round for eight blocks onshore Ecuador, in SucumbĂos Province. These comprise: Araza Este, Changue, Iguana, Perico, Espejo, Pañayacu Norte, Charapa and Sahino. The blocks offered are all onshore, conventional opportunities, […]
Venezuela Oil Production Continues to Collapse
(Energy Analytics Institute, Jared Yamin, 12.Sep.2018) â The decline is consistent and constant as well as consistently and constantly bad, writes Caracas Capital Market in a research note emailed to clients. Summary details from the research note follow: OPEC released the production counts for its member states today and while […]
Venezuelaâs Oil Output Continues Fall, Ecuadorâs Rises in Aug. 2018
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 12.Sep.2018) â Crude oil production in August 2018 in South Americaâs lone OPEC member countries, Venezuela and Ecuador, continued along usual trends, according to data published in the organizationâs September 2018 Monthly Oil Market Report Crude oil production in Venezuela, the country with the worldâs […]
Chevron Wins Ecuador Rainforest âOil Dumpingâ Case
(BBC, 8.Sep.2018) â An international tribunal in The Hague has ruled in favour of the US oil company, Chevron, in an environmental dispute with the government of Ecuador. Chevron had been ordered to pay $9.5bn (ÂŁ7.4bn) compensation to thousands of residents in Ecuador’s Amazon region. They accused the company of […]
Venezuela Wants To Overhaul State Oil Firm PDVSA
(Oilprice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 7.Sep.2018) â Venezuela has set up a commission that will be working to reshuffle and reorganize its state oil firm PDVSA in the next few months, according to the countryâs Official Gazette on Thursday, in what would be the latest Venezuelan attempt to show that it is […]
Venezuela Creates Commission to Reorganize PDVSA: Document
(Reuters, 6.Sep.2018) â Venezuela has created a commission to reorganize state oil company PDVSA in the coming months, according to the Official Gazette circulating on Thursday. PDVSA did not immediately respond to an email seeking further details. Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama ***
Venezuela Oil Sales to US Fell in August
(Reuters, 4.Sep.2018) â Venezuela’s crude sales to the United States fell in August for the second month in a row as exports of two of the South American country’s main grades dropped following port interruptions by a tanker collision, according to Thomson Reuters Trade Flows data. Venezuela’s state-run oil company […]
PDVSA Inks $430 Mln Deal in Effort to Boost Oil Output
(S&P Global, Mery Mogollon, 30.Aug.2018) â State-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA signed a $430 million service agreement with seven companies to boost its oil production by 641,000 b/d, company president Manuel Quevedo said in a statement Wednesday. The companies on the other side of deal are: Well Services Cavallino, Petro […]
Venezuela Aims To Boost Oil Output By 640 Mb/d
(OilPrice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 30.Aug.2018) â Venezuelaâs state oil firm PDVSA has said that it signed a US$430 million joint service agreement with seven companies that would help it increase its crude oil production by 641,000 barrels per day. The companies will help PDVSA to raise production at wells at the […]
Venezuela Takes Action To Stabilize Currency
(ZeroHedge, 21.Aug.2018) â As previewed yesterday, on Monday Venezuela officially slashed five zeros from prices and its currency as part of what has been dubbed one of the greatest currency devaluations in history which slashed the value of the official bolivar by 95 percent, an overhaul that President Nicolas Maduro […]
Magnitude 7.3 Quake in Venezuela Felt in Guyana
(Stabroek News, 21.Aug.2018) â A powerful earthquake has hit the northern coast of Venezuela with a magnitude of 7.3, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It had been originally reported as a 6.8 event but this has since been upgraded to 7.3. Reuters reported that the quake, which was centred […]
Four Cos. to Invest $727 Mln in Ecuador
(Energy Analytics Institute, Jared Yamin, 18.Aug.2018) â Ecuador announced four companies would invest $727.85 million to boost production in a number of fields. The companies â Triboilgas CĂa. Ltda, Vinccler C.A, Arotekh C.A. and Avanzia â plan the investments in the Cuyabeno/Sansahuari, Oso, Yuralpa and Blanca/Vinita fields located in provinces […]
Cure for Venezuelaâs Mercantilism, Rentism Disease
(EnergyNomics, Carlos A Rossi, 18.Aug.2018) â Are natural resource endowed countries victims of their own wealth? Is there a richness threshold beyond which the institutions designed to protect a countryâs citizens turn against them and become their worst enemy by annihilating their productive apparatus riddling it with the miseries of […]
Guyana to Become 5th Largest Oil Producer in LAC Region
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 15.Aug.2018) â If all goes off as planned, by 2025, Guyana will be the 5th largest oil producer in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Thatâs according to an analysis of data posted by Trading Economics, and extrapolation of estimates of Guyanaâs future oil production, […]
Venezuela Petrol Prices Need to Rise to Stop Smuggling
(Reuters, Deisy Buitrago and Brian Ellsworth, 14.Aug.2018) â Venezuelaâs heavily subsidised domestic gasoline prices should rise to international levels to avoid billions of dollars in annual losses due to fuel smuggling, president Nicolas Maduro has said. âGasoline must be sold at an international price to stop smuggling to Colombia and […]
OPEC MOMR Shows Further Oil Declines in Venezuela
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 14.Aug.2018) â Venezuelaâs crude oil production declines seem unstoppable. Venezuelaâs crude oil production fell to 1.278 million barrels per day (MMb/d) in July 2018 compared to 1.325 MMb/d in June 2018 based on secondary sources, reported OPEC in its August Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR). […]
Is Venezuelan Oil Output Falling Faster Than Expected?
(OilPrice.com, Nick Cunningham, 12.Aug.2018) â The bad news from Venezuela continues. In July, Venezuelaâs oil production came in lower than PDVSA had targeted, according to Argus Media. While PDVSA had hoped that it, along with its joint venture partners, would produce as much as 1.65 million barrels per day (mb/d) […]
World Bank Says Oil To Average $65 in 2019
(Energy Analytics Institute, Jared Yamin, 12.Aug2018) â The World Bank expects the price of oil to average $65 per barrel in 2019. âOil prices are expected to average $65 per barrel in 2019. While projections indicate that prices will fall from their April 2018 level, they should be supported by […]
PDVSA President Says Venezuela Production Stabilized
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 10.Aug.2018) â PDVSA President Manuel Quevedo assured that Venezuelan crude oil production had stabilized. Quevedo, who also serves as Venezuelaâs Petroleum Minister, said last week that âour production is approximately 1.5 million barrels a day for the first half of 2018.â Those remarks were made […]
PDVSA Cut Debt to Rosneft $400 Mln in Q2
(Neftegaz.RU, 10.Aug.2018) â According to Platts, Venezuelaâs state oil and gas company PDVSA cut its debt to Russiaâs top crude producer Rosneft by $400 million in the 2nd quarter to $3.6 billion as of the end of June, Rosneftâs 2nd-quarter results presentation showed this week. Rosneft agreed prepayment deals for […]
ShaleWolf Capital Sees Oil Prices Above $110 by 2019
(ShaleWolf Capital, 9.Aug.2018) â On June 22nd, 2018 President Donald Trump asked OPEC to increase its daily oil output by 1 million barrels. Industry experts would agree that OPEC is at or near its full production capacity. OPEC can’t just increase production. As demand continues to grow the world is […]
PdV, Joint Ventures Miss Oil Targets
(Argus, 9.Aug.2018) â Venezuela’s state-owned PdV and its joint ventures fell short of officially targeted crude production by more than 125,000 b/d in July, according to an internal PdV upstream report obtained by Argus. The steepest shortfalls were registered in the Orinoco heavy oil belt â long touted by the […]
Venezuela, Saudi Arabia Discuss Partnerships
(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 8.Aug.2018) â Officials from both OPEC countries discussed existing energy partnerships during their meeting in Caracas. Venezuela was represented by its Petroleum Minister Manuel Quevedo, while Saudi Arabia was represented by its Ambassador to Venezuela Saad Bin Abdullah al Saad, reported PDVSA in an official […]
Venezuela Dodges Oil Asset Seizures
(Reuters, Marianna Parraga, Mircely Guanipa, 7.Aug.2018) â Reuters) – Venezuelaâs state-run oil company PDVSA has limited the damage from an unprecedented slump in crude exports by transferring oil between tankers at sea and loading vessels in neighboring Cuba to avoid asset seizures. But the OPEC member nation is still fulfilling […]
Venezuela Is Oil Marketâs Bizarro World
(S&P Global Platts, Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, 7.Aug.2018) â Venezuela’s state oil and gas company PDVSA cut its debt to Russia’s top crude producer Rosneft by $400 million in the second quarter to $3.6 billion as of the end of June, Rosneft’s second-quarter results presentation showed Tuesday. Rosneft agreed prepayment deals for […]
Venezuela Waiving All Taxes on Profits from PDVSA
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 7.Aug2018) â Aside from wasting paper, more importantly, the recent Gaceta Oficial in Venezuela also has a decree from President Nicolas Maduro waiving all taxes on profits from state oil company PDVSA and the joint ventures for all of 2018. Interestingly, the decree seeks to […]
How Venezuela Gets Plundered
(DW.com, Andreas Knobloch, 6.Aug.2018) â A money-laundering scandal involving Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA could turn into a problem for a Swiss bank. A German banker recently affiliated with the lender has been arrested in Miami. When it comes to the causes behind the severe economic and supply crisis in […]
Venezuela the Clear Leader in Oil Reserves
(UPI, Daniel J. Graeber, 31.Jul.2018) â An annual review of energy trends from Italian energy company Eni found the United States is a “game changer,” though its Venezuela with the largest reserves. In a report running nearly 90 pages, the Italian company’s 17th annual review found total oil reserves declined […]
Venezuela Inflation to Hit 1 Mln Percent. Thanks, Socialism.
(Washington Post, Megan McArdle, 27.Jul.2018) â According to the International Monetary Fund, by the end of the year, the annual inflation rate in Venezuela will reach 1Â million percent. A number like that is hard to grasp. Simply put, a candy bar that cost $1 today would cost $10,000 at the […]
Venezuela Gasoline Price Likely to Rise
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 27.Jul.2018) â The price of gasoline in Venezuela is likely to increase. For some services such as gasoline, there will be a relative increase in price, reported the daily newspaper El National, citing EcoanalĂtica Director AsdrĂșbal Oliveros. âIt’s as if they were decreeing an unannounced […]
Hiking Gasoline Wonât Fix Venezuelaâs Fiscal Problem
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 27.Jul.2018) â Hiking the price of gasoline in Venezuela wonât fix the OPEC countryâs fiscal problem. Thatâs according to recent statements from an opposition leader. âAlthough the price of fuel has to be raised, it will not be enough to solve the [countryâs] fiscal problem,â […]
Falling Oil Output Squeezes Maduro Government
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 27.Jul.2018) â The continued decline in Venezuelaâs oil production acts to squeeze the government of President Nicolas Maduro, says an Ecoanalitica executive. âThe fall in oil production puts more restriction on the government,” said Ecoanalitica Director Asdrubal Oliveros during an interview with Shirley Varnagy on […]
EIA Beta Interactive Data Analysis
(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 26.Jul.2018) â Beta data from the EIA provide users with an interactive way to analyze multiple petroleum data. According to the most recent beta crude oil reserve data provided by the US-based Energy Information Administration, two countries in the Latin American region make the list […]
Venezuela Thermal Plants at 25-30% of Capacity
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 23.Jul.2018) â Venezuelaâs thermal generation plants in Caracas are only operating at 25% to 30% of capacity, and units 7, 8 and 9 of the Tacoa plant in Vargas state are halted due to damage. The situation in other parts of this OPEC country, such […]
Ecuador Non-Oil Exports Up in 2018
(Energy Analytics Institute, Jared Yamin, 18.Jul.2018) â Non-petroleum exports from the South American country rose to $5,484 million from January to May of 2018 compared to $5,149 million in the same period in 2017. Exports of bananas and plantains, aquaculture, fish, flowers, plants, cocoa, processed products and metal mechanics accounted […]
Ecuador Extracting Nearly 523 Mb/d
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 18.Jul.2018) â The South America country is currently extracting nearly 523,000 barrels per day of crude oil, announced the daily newspaper El Universo. Ecuador is seeking to urgently boost output after a June 2018 announcement by OPEC stipulating the increases. ***
Venezuela Claims It Plans To Raise Oil Production
(OilPrice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 17.Jul.2018) â Venezuelaâs Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo has discussed plans with state-held oil company PDVSA to raise the countryâs crude oil production in the second half of the year. While Venezuela and its struggling oil firm claim that they are revising their production planning in order to […]
How Venezuela Struck It Poor
(Foreign Policy, 16.Jul.2018) â The tragic â and totally avoidable â self-destruction of one of the worldâs richest oil economies. In the spring of 1959, at a secretive meeting at a yacht club in Cairo, Venezuelaâs then-minister of mines and hydrocarbons, Juan Pablo PĂ©rez Alfonso, hatched a plan to give […]
Ecuadorâs ITT Output Around 60 Mb/d
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 13.Jul.2018) â Oil production from the Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini or ITT field is around 60,000 barrels per day. With additional work activities, production from ITT is expected to reach up to 70,000 b/d, reported the daily newspaper El Universo, citing PetroAmazonas EP Manager Ălex […]