VENEZUELA: Hugo Cans Half Of State's Oil Directors...After $453 Mn Pension Ponzi Scheme Loss.

M.PRESS/

     President Hugo Chavez personally fired half of state oil's PDVSA board of directors after its pension fund lost about $453 mn usd in a Ponzi scheme linked to a Connecticut-based investor.
     USA officials report that Venezuelan-American Francisco Illaramendi used investors’ money to cover losses.
      PDVSA says it will cover all pension fund losses.

VENEZUELA / IRAN: 25 May UPDATE: After USA Sanctions National Oil Firm For Iran Trade...FM Threatens Supply.

LINK CHANGE/ CSMONITOR

     Venezuelan FM Nicolas Maduro has warned : “There are several proposals that are being evaluated by President Chávez to respond to the United States’ imperialist pretensions' ...and that it could no longer guarantee regular oil shipments after Washington placed sanctions on state oil giant PDVSA.
     The sanctions bar PDVSA from access to U.S. government contracts and import/export financing. 
     However, they do not affect the sale of oil to the USA, other global markets or its U.S.-based CITGO subsidiary. 
     An associate of Chávez accused the USA of trying to be "the world's policeman as it steps on the sovereignty of the people."
     Venezuela currently sends the USA about 45% of its crude. 
     The USA hopes to further disrupt Iran's fuel supplies.
     Chavez has been recovering from a knee problem since 9 May.
    The injury forced him to cancel a three-nation tour of Latin America earlier this month. He has declared that his recovery "is going to be slow."

VENEZUELA: No Bonds Defaults Says C.Bank Prez. Merentes.

REUTERS/ E. Chinea 
2 screen read /

  Central bank president Nelson Merentes ( pictured) insists Venezuela will not default on its foreign debts and investors should continue to buy bonds.
  Merentes said that when Venezuela faced a months-long oil strike that crippled its economy in 2002...it still met its obligations. 
   In February, Capital Economics predicted that default was probable before Chavez's re-election campaign in December 2012. 
    Because of high yields...as much as 16 %...Venezuela's bonds and those of its oil company PDVSA are some of the world's most traded usd bonds. 
   In the past year, Venezuela and PDVSA issued almost $14 billion in usd debt, most of it ($11 Bn) for PDVSA.

VENEZUELA: 2010 Oil Output... Lowest Since 2002.

REUTERS AFRICA /

    Except for recent soaring oil prices, there is bad news for President Hugo Chavez from his oil patch.
     In 2010, oil production fell to its lowest level since a strike stopped output in 2002 reports PDVSA, the state oil company.
    About 2.78 million bpd was extracted in 2010 versus almost 3 million bpd in 2009 even with Venezuela possessing perhaps the largest oil reserves in the world.
    Oil sales are 95% of Venezuela's export income.

VENEZUELA/RUSSIA: Nuclear And Oil Deals Signed.

AFP/    In a $1.6 billion usd deal, Russia will buy a 50% stake in German refinery firm Ruhr Oel from state-owned PDVSA.
    It also agreed to build two 1,200 megawatt nuclear reactors at a new plant in Venezuela. The nuclear plant will  be built over the next 10-15 years. No cost for that deal was revealed.
   It was Chávez's 9th visit to Moscow.

CUBA: Gas-Fired Power Plant To Be Built In Cienfuegos.

REUTERS/

Canadian energy firm Sherritt International will build a gas-fired power plant in Cienfuegos, 250-miles from Havana, along with Venezuela's PDVSA. The new Energas plant will have a 150-megawatt capacity and be fueled by gas from the Cienfuegos oil refinery.

Editor's Note: Look for more deterioration of picturesque Cienfuegos' now borderline air quality. Cuba talks about pollution...but does little about it.

    Photo Of Havana by Yoani Sanchez.

Venezuela's PDVSA To Fight ConocoPhillips Over Refinery Takeover.

LAHT/
Venezuela said that it was considering taking legal action against ConocoPhillips after it confirmed exercised an option to buy PDVSA out of a jointly-owned refinery in Sweeny, Texas.
The refinery is not the only issue at stake between ConocoPhillips and PDVSA. The two also dispute compensation for controlling interest held by ConocoPhillips in the Faja oil field in the Orinoco Basin.

Petrobras & Venezuela Delay New Refinery Again.

WSJOURNAL/
Petrobras and Venezuela's Petroleos de Venezuela SA are having difficulties launching a troubled refinery joint venture, with the final agreement for the Abreu e Lima refinery in Brazil's Pernambuco state delayed again.
Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez were expected to sign the deal over the weekend. But the failure was just another in a long line of delays, cost increases and controversies to weigh on the refinery in Brasil's Northeast.
"The project has been saddled with cost overruns and allegations of overcharges. Brazil's Senate started an inquiry into the refinery deal after allegations of fraud were uncovered by a separate police investigation."

Petrobras/Venezuelan Refinery Costs Triple!

LAHT.
Petrobras admits that the cost of a joint-venture refinery with Venezuela’s PDVSA being built in Pernambuco, Brasil will total $12 billion, or nearly THREE TIMES more than initially estimated.