Crisis-hit Venezuela's oil output plummets in 2017 to decades low

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#BUSINESS NEWS JANUARY 18, 2018 / 9:59 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Crisis-hit Venezuela's oil output plummets in 2017 to decades low

Marianna Parraga, Alexandra Ulmer
5 MIN READ

HOUSTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s crude oil production fell nearly 13 percent last year, according to figures released by OPEC on Thursday, hitting a 28-year annual low that points to a deepening economic crisis and increased chances of a debt default.

The South American country produced 2.072 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2017 versus 2.373 million bpd the previous year, a nearly 300,000-bpd drop.

That was the biggest decline among the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that have pledged to restrain production since the start of 2017 through 2018.

But unlike voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia, Russia and others intended to stoke higher crude prices by draining a global glut, Venezuela has been unable to stop a now six-year-long production decline.

Insufficient investments, payment delays to suppliers, U.S. sanctions, and a brain drain have hammered Venezuela’s oil industry. ...

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-venezuela/crisis-hit-venezuelas-oil-output-plummets-in-2017-to-decades-low-idUSKBN1F720C

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Source: Bloomberg

Venezuela Has Some Bad News and Some Really Bad News

The country's oil production has collapsed; the only question is just how badly.

By Liam Denning
January 18, 2018, 12:01 PM EST

I think we can all agree that, absent a war or some deliberate strategy, a 14 percent drop in a country's oil production in the space of one year is not a good thing. Even worse, though, is a 29 percent drop.

These two realities, both undesirable, were presented for Venezuela in OPEC's latest monthly report, out Thursday. The oil-exporters' club publishes two sets of production figures for each member: namely, what the countries report themselves and a consensus figure from secondary sources.

In Venezuela's case, something very interesting happened in December. While secondary sources estimated a drop of 82,000 barrels a day in the country's output, Caracas said it was 216,000 barrels a day. This chart showing the month-to-month changes in Venezuela's output over the past year from the two sets of figures shows you just how weird that is:

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The independent figures show output dropped by 276,000 barrels a day between December 2016 and December 2017 (that's the 14 percent drop). The official figures show an astounding collapse of 649,000, roughly equivalent to losing Argentina's entire output. Speaking at Bloomberg's offices in New York on Wednesday, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, characterized the drop in Venezuela's oil production as the biggest unplanned one in history.

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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-01-18/venezuela-s-oil-production-collapse-bad-news-worse-news

[COLGATE4]

1. If only the CIA (and the Illuminati, the Bilderberg

group, the Masons and Alvaro Uribe) would stop sabotaging their oil production, Venezuela would have it made. *

*if really necessary

[GatoGordo]

2. PdVSA is "crumbling on its own", despite allegations of sabotage and strikes

Venezuela’s Oil Production Is Collapsing
Sharp drop in output increases the odds of a debt default, worsens economic crisis

By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Kejal Vyas
Updated Jan. 18, 2018 9:58 a.m. ET
387 COMMENTS
CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuela’s oil output is collapsing at an accelerating pace, deepening an economic and humanitarian crisis and increasing the chances the country will default on its debts.

Crude production fell 11% in December from the month before, according to government figures released Thursday. Over all of 2017, output was down 29%, among the steepest national declines in recent history, driven by mismanagement and under investment at the state oil company, say industry observers and oilmen.

The drop is deeper than that experienced by Iraq after the 2003 war there—when the amount of crude pumped fell 23%—or by Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“In Venezuela, there is no war, nor strike,” said Evanán Romero, a former director of government-run Petróleos de Venezuela SA. “What’s left of the oil industry is crumbling on its own.”

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-oil-industry-takes-a-fall-1516271401