PdV ready to up production, collaborate: Maduro

Venezuelan state oil firm PdV is "ready" to increase production significantly and work with the US to help offset any drop in crude supplies stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said last night.

Following a meeting in Caracas on 5 March with a high-level US delegation, Maduro said in a televised speech that PdV "... is ready, once recovered to a basic level, to produce and grow one, two and three million barrels of oil per day, if necessary, and stabilize the oil and gas market."

PdV production last reached 3mn b/d in 2013. Insufficient investment in equipment, a lack of technical expertise since nationalizing energy assets in 2007-2008, natural decline and — starting in 2019 — comprehensive US sanctions, lead output to drop as low as 250,000 b/d shortly before the pandemic. The company says its output is about 850,000 b/d currently but that includes condensate and natural gas liquids. Opec estimates output of around 650,000 b/d.

Maduro said some agreements had been reached with US officials but he did not provide details. He asked Venezuelans to be accepting of the alleged agreements. "What was agreed upon, was agreed upon," he said.

He described the latest interactions between Washington and Caracas — the first since President Joe Biden took office — as "a respectful, cordial, very diplomatic meeting." The meeting included US ambassador James Story who has been stationed in Bogota, Colombia, since the 2019 break off of relations.

By Carlos Camacho