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.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS