Economy
Citgo Petroleum Corp., a US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state-run oil conglomerate Pdvsa, reported in a statement that it is undertaking a restructuring process in an effort "to respond and adapt to the unprecedented economic crisis currently facing the United States."

The company said in the communiqué that the restructuring efforts will have "a mild impact on the company's payroll." However, the corporation clarified that out of the 3,762 employees currently working at Citgo, less than 2 percent -or 75 people- have been hit by the restructuring process. "The few impacted employees are being offered special separation packages."

The statement said that Citgo categorically denies some news reports of alleged massive employee layoffs in the company.

Further, Eulogio Del Pino, Pdvsa Vice president of Exploration and Production said that as a result of the behavior of oil prices, the operating budget of the state-run oil company will be cut between 30 percent and 40 percent in 2009. In order to implement such reduction, the Venezuelan oil industry will merge several oil joint ventures. 

Del Pino told Dow Jones that "in the coming months, we will combine joint ventures into roughly four or as many as six companies." 

Del Pino added that Pdvsa's investment budget will be approximately USD 12 billion. 

As far as the debt with the service providers is concerned, the senior oil executive said that Pdvsa will hold talks with companies in order to ask them to lower their rates. He insisted that the contractors have increased their rates because oil prices were above USD 100, but now their rates are very high; and thus he hopes suppliers to cut their charges.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas