Venezuela names PdV chief as new oil minister: Update

Adds details on Tellechea, exports.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has named the head of state-owned oil company PdV, Pedro Tellechea, as the country's new oil minister following the resignation of Tareck El Aissami earlier this week amid a corruption investigation.

"I met with the president of PdV, engineer Pedro Tellechea, and I appointed him as the new minister of petroleum," Maduro said on Twitter late on Tuesday. He said the appointment was made "within the framework of the transformation process that the industry is undergoing".

Tellechea has only been president of PdV for two months. He replaces Tareck El Aissami, who said he offered his resignation "with the purpose of supporting, accompanying and fully backing" a probe that has just been opened into "serious acts of corruption" at PdV. El Aissami has been the target of US sanctions and has been indicted in the US for alleged drug trafficking.

Venezuela's investigation into corruption and misuse of funds, including in its oil industry, led to a series of arrests of public officials over the weekend amid claims that the country is missing $3bn-5bn in cryptocurrency money.

Antonio Perez, a Venezuelan army major and PdV's vice-president for quality trade and supply, became the first company official to be arrested on Tuesday. Venezuela's attorney general Tarek William Saab said more arrests are coming.

Tellechea has a degree in engineering and is a graduate of the Venezuelan military academy. Before taking the top role at PdV in January Tellechea led the state petrochemicals firm Pequiven, where he had been since 2019. No new leadership has been named to lead Pequiven since, effectively making him head of both companies and the oil ministry.

One of Tellechea's first acts as head of PdV was freezing all contracts on 6 January for review, leading to delays in shipments of multiple products. This included some delays in shipments of crude exports by US major Chevron, sources told Argus at the time. Chevron through its joint-ventures with PdV has been increasing production since the US eased sanctions on Venezuela late last year.

Chevron shipped roughly 85,000 b/d of crude in February from Venezuela to refineries on the US Gulf of Mexico, up from 78,000 b/d in January, based on shipping data from analytics firm Vortexa. Another 58,000 b/d have been shipped or scheduled so far in March.

Both at PdV and at the ministry, Tellechea has replaced officials closely tied to former president Hugo Chavez, including El Aissami and former PdV head Asdrubal Chavez.

By Nader Itayim and Carlos Camacho