Venezuela: Préstamo irá a empresas “mixtas” de China en la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco
The "Cámara Boliviana de Hidrocarburos y Energía" is a representative institution of the hydrocarbon sector in Bolivia. Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Venezuela: Loan will go to "mixed" enterprises in China in the Orinoco Oil Belt
The Chinese Development Bank's disbursement of $5 billion to Venezuela will go primarily to the Asian giant's "mixed" companies operating in the Orinoco Oil Belt. The resources would be used to increase the production of the companies by about 150,000 barrels/day.
Source: Panorama
Sources familiar with the energy sector and within PDVSA assured this newspaper that the resources will be directed primarily to "Chinese oil-related companies".
Currently, there are three large Asian consortiums operating in Venezuela: the National Petroleum Corporation of China (CNPC), which operates in five joint ventures, mostly in the Orinoco Belt; in addition to Sinopec and Petrochina Internacional.
The source assured that "with around 10 billion dollars, they would increase oil production by 300,000 barrels per day".
The recent announcement of a $5 billion loan from China to the country seeks to give a new "puff of oxygen" to PDVSA, the state company that is currently experiencing the most drastic drop in its production in the last 30 years. The latest data from the Opec indicate that the company's pumping rate barely exceeds 1.4 million barrels/day.
"We are about to sign three or four new financing agreements that will have a very positive impact on the increase in production in the Orinoco Oil Belt," said Venezuelan Economy Minister Simón Zerpa, who is visiting Beijing, referring to his country's largest oil reservoir, without giving any further details.
China, the biggest financial ally of the Venezuelan revolution, stopped three years ago the delivery of funds to the government of Nicolás Maduro to finance development projects, under an oil payment scheme agreed with the late socialist president Hugo Chávez.
Experts in the field pointed out to this newspaper that the resources of the Asian giant arrived at the "best time", due to the financial sanctions that Washington imposed on the Venezuelan government last May.
On that occasion, President Trump signed an executive order to limit the Maduro government's ability to sell state assets, including public debt and bonds of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA, in an attempt to further restrict its financing capacity. Nine months ago, Washington also banned the U.S. financial system from buying bonds and debt from the Venezuelan government and the Venezuelan oil company, preventing banks from granting them new loans.
"These resources will undoubtedly serve to give PDVSA, a company that is going through its worst times: high debts, financial inability to cancel its bonds, a drop in production and international lawsuits that endanger its assets, especially those located in Aruba, Curaçao and North America. China is making a pretty risky move by trying to challenge Trump's sanctions against Maduro," said energy analyst Jose Alejandro Martinez.
He pointed out that "it has been very difficult for PDVSA, in the last six months, to obtain external financing in the short term. Russia has not made any more loans in the last year and recently accepted a restructuring of its debt. Of the resources announced by China, no one knows how the form of payment will be, what will pay for more oil, I find it difficult because production is still in free fall".
José Sangronis, an energy analyst, told PANORAMA that "it would be good if part of this Chinese loan were invested in western Venezuela. There is potential to increase production by 1 million barrels/day, but the resources are always directed to the Belt".
Last month, the Minister for Petroleum, Manuel Quevedo, announced a recovery plan for 23,319 wells with a production potential of 1,426,000 barrels (1.4 mmbd). Of the total number of wells, 13,435 are located in western Venezuela and the rest in the east.
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