Venezuela failed to boost oil production over the past 10 days as the government had pledged because strikers seeking to force out President Hugo Chavez disrupted the loading of tankers, the head of the state oil company said.
Oil output in Venezuela, which had been the fourth-biggest supplier of crude to the US, is unchanged since Dec. 28 at 600,000 barrels a day, or a fifth what the country was producing before a national strike began early last month, Petroleos de Venezuela SA President Ali Rodriguez said. The oil company has been unsuccessful in its effort to replace striking workers, hiring just 15 new employees since the walkout started, he said.
International shippers refuse to dock tankers because of safety concerns, said Rodriguez, appointed by Chavez in April.
"If you don't get the inventories out, the storage tanks get full and you have to stop producing," he said in an interview.
The longer oil production is interrupted in Venezuela -- where the industry accounts for half of government revenue -- the more pressure will mount on Chavez, who angered workers in part because of efforts to increase state control over businesses such as the oil company, analysts said. Venezuela's reduced output and the threat of a war in Iraq helped drive up oil prices to two-year highs.
Crude oil for February delivery rose as much as 25 cents, or 0.8 percent, to US$33.33 a barrel in after-hours, electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at US$33.14 at 1:09am Caracas time.
Chavez, a former lieutenant colonel who survived a coup attempt last year, has refused strikers' demands that he resign or call elections by the end of March. Chavez, whose term expires in 2006, has vowed to break the strike and said last week that the government would restore full oil production and exports by the middle of February.
Striking oil workers "didn't consider or don't care about the terrible consequences of stopping the oil industry," Chavez said in a televised speech last night. "They're traitors of the homeland, criminals and terrorists."
His government has made repeated forecasts of how fast production would increase, including a promise to produce 800,000 barrels a day by last week. Oil exports that had totaled 2.4 million barrels a day before the strike have climbed back to 1.5 million barrels a day, Chavez said, contradicting Rodriguez's assessment that exports would only reach half their pre-strike levels by the end of January.
Industry analysts have said the government would need several months at least to restore full operations in the oil industry once the strike ends.
"Forecasts by Chavez and other government officials are a ploy to demoralize the strikers, showing them that their actions have failed," said Vitali Meschoulam, an analyst with political risk research company Eurasia Group in New York. "Everyone knows that's not case."
Rodriguez, who has said production would total 2 million barrels a day by the end of January, declined to make further forecasts on output. He said exports that dropped 81 percent last month to about 15 million barrels.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
RSS