[R-G] Venezuela Boosts Oil Investment

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8UAG9DO0.htm>
The Associated Press  January 21, 2008, 3:44PM ET
Venezuela boosts oil investment

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ

CARACAS, Venezuela

State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA will spend $15.6 billion
on oil-related investments this year, a 56 percent increase over last
year, the country's oil minister said Monday.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said the higher investment is aimed at
helping PDVSA meet its goal of increasing crude output to 5.8 million
barrels a day by 2012.

The government says output is currently more than 3 million barrels a
day, though independent analysts estimate the true figure is
considerably less.

Apart from oil-related investment, PDVSA also has budgeted $1.2
billion for social programs, Ramirez said.

President Hugo Chavez's government has sought to use the company to
branch out into areas such as agriculture, home-building and food
distribution, creating seven new subsidiaries in the past year.

Critics argue PDVSA's involvement in non-oil activities has drawn away
needed funds from investment and hurt oil output.

But Ramirez said "this is the new PDVSA" as the company launched its
subsidiary focused on food production and distribution on Monday -- a
move geared toward helping to stem shortages of milk and other items.

Ramirez said the new state-run food company will spend $150 million to
import milk, beef, chicken, sugar, beans and other products. It plans
to distribute 74,000 metric tons of food nationwide in the coming
months.

Last year, the amount earmarked for oil-related investments was $10
billion, up from $5.8 billion in 2006.

<http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1937496820080120>
UPDATE 1-Venezuela says refinery complex back to normal
Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:57am GMT

(Adds quote, details, background)

CARACAS, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Venezuela's largest refinery complex, the
Cardon-Amuay plant, has resumed normal operations after two power
failures took units offline in recent weeks, the state oil company
said in a statement on Saturday.

The refineries, Amuay and Cardon, make up the complex known as
Paraguana, one of the world's largest centers for exporting crude and
products with a capacity to process more than 900,000 barrels a day.

The 640,000-bpd Amuay refinery began its restart on Thursday after an
electrical failure took several units offline last weekend.

On Saturday, the state company PDVSA said the refinery's crude
processing operations were fully back online.

PDVSA also began last week to bring back online its Cardon facility
after a December power outage.

"PDVSA also affirms complete normality in the Cardon refinery's
operations," the Saturday statement said.

Venezuela, the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States,
has experienced a string of refinery outages over the past two years.

The OPEC country's product exports to the United States, its principal
client, fell 23 percent in the first 10 months of 2007, while finished
motor gasoline exports tumbled 62 percent in the same period.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Saul Hudson; Editing by Peter
Cooney)

<http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2143128920080121>
UPDATE 1-Venezuela's PDVSA restarts El Palito oil refinery
Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:16pm GMT

(Adds details, background)

CARACAS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has
restarted the 135,000 barrel per day El Palito refinery after a recent
electrical outage took multiple units off-line, a refinery source told
Reuters on Monday.

State oil company PDVSA last week said El Palito a power outage took
the cat cracker offline during the weekend of Jan. 12.

The same refinery source told Reuters the cat cracker unit had failed
after PDVSA tried to increase runs through the 54,000 bpd cracker.

Venezuela, the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States,
has suffered a string of refinery outages during the last two years.

Exports of refined products to the United States have fallen
noticeably during the same period, with a slump of more than 20
percent in the first 10 months of 2007. (Reporting by Brian Ellsworth;
Editing by John Picinich)
-- 
Yoshie
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