Caracas,
Saturday
November 20,2010

According to figures released by the Venezuela Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the average price of Venezuelan crude sold by Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) during the week ending November 19 fell to $76.11 from the previous week's year high of $79.75.

CARACAS -- Venezuela's weekly oil basket fell US$3.64 this week from its high for the year, with oil prices also tumbling from highs in international markets during the week.

According to figures released by the Venezuela Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the average price of Venezuelan crude sold by Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) during the week ending November 19 fell to $76.11 from the previous week's year high of $79.75.

According to the Ministry, the average price for the year of Venezuela's mix of heavy and medium crude has now risen to $71.33, higher than last year’s average price of $57.08 but still below the 2008 average of $86.49.

The United States is the largest importer of Venezuela’s oil exports.

In 2008, the United States imported 1.19 million bpd of crude oil and petroleum products from Venezuela, down from 1.36 million bpd in 2007.

Historically, Venezuela has been one of the most important suppliers of foreign oil to the United States, but that importance has been diminishing, especially under Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. In 1960, Venezuela’s share of U.S. oil imports stood at 50%, but Venezuela now bounces between being the fourth and fifth largest supplier to the US, supplying only 9% of total US oil imports in 2008.

As of the end of August, Venezuela was supplying the US with 974,000 barrels of oil a day.

Oil accounts for more than one-third of Venezuela's gross domestic product, more than half of government revenue and about nine-tenths of the country's exports.


Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said $100 per barrel is a “fair price” for crude in today’s world last month.

“It’s a fair price because it would allow us to recover the value of our natural resource and sustain the important investments that all oil-producing countries must make to maintain production capacities,” said Ramirez, who is also president of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

But all factors that affect the global oil market would have to be studied carefully before such a price could be set, he said at a conference to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies.

“We know the price of oil is being affected by factors apart from so-called oil-market fundamentals; in other words, financial speculation, the weakness of the dollar, all those elements that are closely tied to a perception of economic problems,” Ramirez said.

Despite the drastic fall in price between 2008-2009, from $140 to $35 per barrel, the minister hailed the “significant recovery” since then to a current level of $70 a barrel.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said last week that oil should be above $100 a barrel because the US dollar "is increasingly worthless."

Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC and one of the globe’s top oil exporters, says it produces 2.9 million barrels per day, though OPEC and the IEA put that figure closer to 2.3 million barrels a day.

The country plans to increase output to 4.15 million bpd in 2015 and to 6.85 million bpd starting in 2021 thanks to several promising projects in the massive, heavy-oil Orinoco Belt in eastern Venezuela, according to Ramirez.