MARIANNA PÁRRAGA
EL UNIVERSAL

State-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) has started to keep with iron fist its promise to diversify the destiny of oil exports.

In line with a reduction of 100,000 bpd in Venezuelan exports of oil and byproducts to the United States last year, as stated by the US Department of Energy, Pdvsa reported a drop to 45 percent in 2006 from 56 percent in 2003. The preliminary numbers from January to August show the smaller US slice in the pie chart of oil shipments.

That same period, Latin America and the Caribbean gained a higher profile to get from 30 to 36 percent out of total exports, followed by Europe, from 7 to 12 percent. Asia and the rest of the world kept the remaining 7 percent, despite the growing supply to China.

Taking out from total exports in 2006 the amount managed by private partners in the Orinoco oil belt, the United States got only 42 percent of Pdvsa exports versus 58 percent for remaining importers.

Pdvsa highlighted in its annual report the strides made in Petrocaribe and the production of 5.6 million barrels annually of Europe-quality diesel in Puerto La Cruz refinery. It should be noted that while the United States pay in cash the Venezuelan oil invoice, the Latin American region is the recipient of bilateral agreements including loose terms and conditions.

In numbers
Based on Pdvsa 2006 annual report, mostly prepared with updated numbers as of February, the domestic oil output last year averaged 3.22 million bpd. That is, 48,000 bdp down the official numbers reported in January by Pdvsa CEO Rafael Ramirez and 52,000 bpd below the 2005 output.

As appears from the breakdown, while Pdvsa output in east Venezuela rose over 100,000 bpd -following an adjustment resulting from the takeover of six fields- it remained unchanged in the western and central-southern parts of the country.

For their part, joint ventures, except for Dación and Jusepín, extracted 343,000 bdp, and partnerships in the Orinoco oil belt got a mean value of 562,000 bpd, that is, 39,700 bpd or 6 percent less, compared with 2005.

Further, there was 173,000 bpd of liquefied natural gas for a consolidated oil output of 3.39 million bpd, in addition to 6.9 billon cubic feet per day of natural gas.

As for exports, the corporate annual report showed overlapping figures. However, based on the summary table including data from January to December, Pdvsa exports averaged 2.26 million bpd and 170,000 bpd of synthetic oil as part of strategic partnerships.

Last, consumption in the domestic market totaled 481,000 bpd of gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, LPG, lube oil, asphalt and others.

Translated by Conchita Delgado
cdelgado@eluniversal.com