Venezuela oil min sees oil at near $70 year-end

Oil demand is gradually improving and oil prices should climb to near $70 by year's end, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Friday, a day after OPEC agreed to maintain production.

The comment comes after the powerful Saudi oil minister said this week that he believed the recuperating world economy was ready to cope with prices as high as $75 to $80 a barrel, around the level that the world's top producer has said is fair.

"We expect (prices) to be near $70 at the end of the year," Ramirez, one of the more hawkish voices in the cartel, told Reuters after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo. "The market looks like it's recovering."

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Thursday held output steady and instead bet on economic growth and recovering demand to drive the oil market, a move economists said risked overtaxing consumers coping with recession.[ID:nLS12120]

"OPEC will be ready to have balance in the market," he said.

OPEC-member Venezuela has been aggressively seeking investments from Asia, eyeing China and Japan for new sources of financing to fill a budget gap left by a tumble in oil prices from a record high last summer.

Last month, Japan and Venezuela agreed on a broad cooperation to develop oil and gas projects in the Latin American nation.

Source :Reuters.

Trade, development top agenda for Lula-Chavez meet

Trade between South American nations and bilateral development are set to top talks Tuesday between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The leaders, to meet in Brazil's northeastern city of Salvador de Bahia, represent Latin America's biggest oil exporter and the region's biggest economy.

Chavez's bid to see his country join the Mercosur trade bloc was expected to be one of the key issues on the table, but the leftist president made no specific mention of it on Monday.

"We have decided to speed up all cooperation agreements between Brazil and Venezuela," Chavez told official television station VTV, emphasizing an agreement with Federal Caixa, Brazil's main state-owned bank.

"We want to help Lula's experiment in building housing in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and with creating a savings system."

Chavez added that the pair would sign a document Tuesday to create a public banking network and housing programs, as well as agreements on agriculture and food production.

Brazil's senate is poised to vote on ratifying full Mercosur membership to Venezuela, though debate has been peppered with criticism from a few senators that Chavez is too authoritarian to be accepted.

Venezuela applied for membership to the bloc in 2006, and its accession has already been approved by Argentina and Uruguay. In late April, Chavez said he hoped Venezuela would become a member before Tuesday's meeting.

Lula and Chavez are also expected to discuss a 10-billion-dollar credit line Venezuela has requested from Brazil's BNDES development bank, diplomatic sources in Caracas said.

Chavez last week received the president of BNDES, Luciano Coutinho, to flesh out the request.

Bilateral trade between Venezuela and Brazil amounted to 5.7 billion dollars last year, heavily weighted in favor of Brazilian imports, according to the Federation of Brazil-Venezuela Chambers of Commerce.

The presidents have been holding regular meetings since 2007 to find ways to boost cooperation between their countries.

Story from AFP 
AFP 05/26/2009 09:19

World oil markets over-supplied: Venezuela's oil minister

Oil markets are currently oversupplied, but it is still too early to decide whether OPEC needs to cut production at its next meeting, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Sunday.

He said OPEC's objective is to see oil prices at around $60 per barrel this year and at $70 per barrel next year.

Ecuadorean Oil Minister Derlis Palacios said later he saw no need for OPEC to cut output as world oil prices start to stabilize.

"I don't think it is necessary. Markets are more stable," Palacios told reporters.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Libya have said they believe oil prices will keep rising to eventually hit $75 a barrel, but acknowledged the weak world economy is keeping demand down.

Libya said oil demand could rise by the third quarter if the U.S. economy recovers, but top oil producer Saudi Arabia fretted about weak demand outside Asia as it urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to "stay the course" before its meeting.

OPEC members are planning to meet on May 28 when analysts expect the group to keep production unchanged.

(Reporting by Alonso Soto and Jose Llangari, Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Jan Paschal.Reuters)

Venezuela nationalizes 60 oil service companies

The Venezuelan government on Friday started the process to nationalize 60 oil service contractors and place them under the control of the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela.

President Hugo Chavez was greeted by workers dressed in red and waving the company’s flags on the Lake of Maracaibo in the oil rich state of Zulia, as he toured the newly expropriated installations.

"We are advancing the construction of socialism," Chavez told state television, as he spoke and shook hands with employees. "The profit will now stay with the workers," he added.

Chavez said the takeover would lead to an "around-20-percent" cut in production cost as a result of better management and improved efficiency.

With the move, 300 boats, several ports and more than 8,000 workers will now be absorbed by the state oil giant, according to Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, who accompanied Chavez in touring around the facilities.

The expropriations followed the approval of the Organic Law by the National Assembly on Thursday which cleared the way for the nationalization of the service companies in all primary hydrocarbons operations.

The law will affect contractors dealing with water, vapor or gas injection, gas compression, staff and materials transportation, replacement of pipelines and vessel maintenance.

Chavez said that the measure represented a "socialist offensive" which would eliminate the monopoly of the contracting companies and guarantee the welfare of thousands of Venezuelan workers.

Venezuela, which relies on oil income for over 93 percent of its export earnings, has been greatly affected by the rapid decline in oil prices.

Petroleos de Venezuela has recently begun seeking for previously unsolicited foreign investment in the oil rich Orinoco Belt as well as renegotiation of current contracts with some foreign companies to reduce costs.

Following the victory in a February referendum which will allow him to run for president again when his term expires in 2012, Chavez has pushed forward a series of similar reforms.

In March, the government nationalized several rice factories apart from taking over some key ports previously run by state governments to bring them under the control of national government.

In 2007, Chavez nationalized oil projects worth billions of dollars, leading oil giants Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips to quit the nation and sue for compensation.

Source: www.chinaview.cn

Sandino oil tanker arrived in Venezuela

This Tuesday arrived the Sandino oil tanker at the Marine terminal of Guaraguao refinery in Anzoategui state, the same boat is a product of the Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture Transalba, that will immediately begin to perform transportation services of crude oil between the countries hat make part of the energy agreements of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba) and Petrocaribe. 

The activity counted with the presence of the Refining and Trade Vice President of PDVSA, Asdrubal Chavez, who held that this boat has a capacity to carry up to 490.000 barrels of oil. 

He noted that these actions will strengthen the sovereignty in the transportation of oil, which will be of vital importance for the development of the peoples of the region. 

PDVSA has expressed that the new hydrocarbons ship will allow to generate savings in the payment of freight and increase the warranties in the subject of transport and supply of oil in the region. 

Sandino is the second oil ship to arrive to the country in the framework of energy cooperation of Alba, after the arrival of the Petion ship, last February. 

It will carry monthly shipments of light crude from the refinery in Puerto La Cruz to the Camilo Cienfuegos refinery, located in Cuba; Likewise, it will transport Fuel Oil to other destinations in the Caribbean. 

It is being studied the possibility of acquiring a third vessel of less tonnage to facilitate access to Central American ports of lesser depth and storage capacity.