Another PdV board shakeup afoot

Venezuela´s state-owned oil company PdV is undergoing another senior management shakeup in the face of further operational declines and financial pressures, but chief executive Manuel Quevedo remains in place.

The new team of five board vice presidents heading up key business units reshuffles or replaces short-lived appointments just named in September, two PdV officials confirmed separately to Argus.

The appointments are expected to be published in the Official Gazette as early as tomorrow.

According to preliminary details, the new board vice presidents include Miguel Quintana Castro who takes over exploration and production, replacing Nelson Ferrer Sanchez. Quintana for now will retain his current post of planning vice president.

Rosa Mota moves from PdV Gas president to board vice president in charge of gas, replacing Nemrod Contreras Mejías.

Rodolfo Jiménez takes over from Guillermo Blanco Acosta in refining.

José Rojas Reyes, who like Quevedo is a member of the national guard, takes over trading and supply, replacing Fernando de Quintal who moves into finance in place of Iris Medina Fernández.

Internal critics say the new team has sparse industry experience and will not rescue PdV´s faltering operations.

"These changes are meant to buy time in the face of an imminent collapse, and responsibility for that is transferred to the new people," one of the PdV officials said.

The board appointments come mostly from Venezuela´s housing ministry, which was headed by Quevedo before he was named to head PdV and the energy ministry in late 2017. Behind the scenes, the changes appear to reinforce loyalty to Diosdado Cabello, the powerful head of Venezuela´ national assembly.

Venezuela is currently producing less than 1.2mn b/d of crude, more than 600,000 b/d less than a year ago and a third of the Opec country´s 1990s level.

Downstream, PdV´s refineries are operating at around a quarter of their nameplate capacity.

At PdV´s main oil terminal at Jose, one of three loading and unloading docks remains out of service since an August tanker collision. The company has compensated for the dock loss in part by recovering access to its Dutch Caribbean logistical assets that had been cut off by a debt dispute with ConocoPhillips starting in May.

PdV is due to pay close to $1bn in bond debt on 27 October.