Venezuela Slashes Oil Investment

State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) has cut its investment plan for this year by almost 40 percent to $12 billion, PDVSA Vice President Eulogio Del Pino told an industry group.

He said, however, that PDVSA “is maintaining its policy” of devoting at least 10 percent of its investment budget “to social development,” state news agency ABN reported Thursday.


Regarding the remaining 90 percent, Del Pino said Thursday that the money would go to projects that include the modernization of two refineries and continued efforts to develop the Orinoco Belt, where some 30 oil companies from different parts of the world are carrying out a program to certify that area’s total reserves.

The Venezuelan government expects that the heavy-oil certification program will confirm that the country’s certified reserves amount to 314 billion barrels, the highest in the world and almost double the Andean nation’s current total.

Rigzone