President Chavez says Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is NOT in trouble

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied that state-owned oil giant PDVSA was in financial trouble, dismissing gloomy media accounts about impending bankruptcy as "another lie of the bourgeoisie to make people believe that the socialist project is impossible."

"A lie that from being repeated so much" tries "to make people think it's true, so that in the collective mind the idea forms that the socialist project is impossible," the president said during his weekly radio and television show on Sunday.

Last year, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) went from being the world's No. 8 oil company to No. 4, but "in the press of the bourgeoisie they put out reports every day that it is bankrupt," Chavez said. "The real truth is there for the world to see, but the oligarchy's press tries to cover it up ... the one that's bankrupt is capitalism," Chavez said, adding that he was happy that the price of Venezuelan petroleum had recovered, reaching $61.30 per barrel last week, up $5 from the previous week.

Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, who is PDVSA's chief, said on Chavez' program that oil prices were rebounding thanks to the production cuts implemented by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. Last week, PDVSA held its annual meeting and the financial figures to be released on Monday will disprove all the reports about problems at the company, Ramirez said.

PDVSA "grew in terms of physical assets to $71 billion (in 2008), invested $15 billion and made allocations of $53 billion to the state," up 20.5 percent from 2007, the energy minister said. The state-owned oil company posted a profit of $9.4 billion in 2008, up 50 percent from the $6.27 billion profit registered in the previous year, Ramirez added.

Original source: lath.com