December 21, 2005
PDVSA will increase oil output 100,000b/d in 2006

(BNamericas.com) - "Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA will increase oil production by 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) in 2006 on 32 fields currently under operating agreements with private companies, company president and energy and oil minister Rafael Ramírez told BNamericas. 'We can do this immediately, 100,000b/d this year [2006]. That will be very important for us,' Ramírez said about the production increase.

Nineteen companies in 31 operating agreements representing production of 532,240b/d have now signed preliminary agreements to migrate to new joint ventures in which PDVSA will have an average 60% stake. Only one company, US oil major ExxonMobil, is still holding out ahead of the December 31 deadline to accept the new terms or have their oilfields seized by PDVSA.

PDVSA has set aside 'over US$1bn' for E&P investments in the 32 fields, which is much lower than the US$4bn that PDVSA paid operators last year. 'Our own production costs do not surpass US$4 a barrel, while they [private operators] had costs of US$14/b,' Ramírez said".