Here's a first for the oil and gas industry: Venezuela's state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) plans to launch the country's first plant to produce energy-saving light bulbs.
The $280-million plant will produce 15 million bulbs the first year and as many as 74 million units/year during its first 5 years of operations.
The plant will be built in the Paraguana free-trade zone by a joint company of PDVSA subsidiary PDVSA Industrial and Vietnam's Dien Quang Lamp JSC, which will provide the technology and raw materials.
The announcement coincided with reports that Venezuela has just 140 oil rigs in operation, down 36% from the 222 rigs operating 2 years ago—a drop in activity that raises question marks.
Is there a serious problem? Will Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez or Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez or PDVSA officials soon be selling apples on street corners?
Uncredited drilling
Apparently not, if you believe PDVSA's head of exploration Eulogio Del Pino, who said that more oil drilling is taking place in Venezuela than the country is being given credit for.
"The news media that's controlled by the opposition says there are only 56 drills in Venezuela. Those figures are false," said Del Pino, who said there are 140 rigs at work: 50 owned by PDVSA and 90 owned by contractors.
Del Pino offered no explanation for the reduced drilling activity, nor did he say anything about the possibility that production also may have been affected by Chavez's nationalization of dozens of service companies in the Lake Maracaibo oil region.
Significantly enough, Del Pino uttered his remarks at a meeting with other PDVSA officials in the eastern Orinoco region, saying that future production there will reach 3 million b/d over the next 10 years, assuming that all goes well.
Signs of decay
But all is not going well as a restart of Venezuela's 165,000-b/d Petrocedeno heavy oil upgrader failed to take place over in early December.
The facility, which upgrades heavy oil from the country's Orinoco belt, remains shut for unscheduled maintenance, while the 135,000-b/d Petroanzoategui upgrader remains shut due to boiler problems.
According to analyst IHS Global Insight, Venezuela has just four heavy oil upgraders, so the unplanned closure of two represents "a notable blow" to the country's heavy oil upgrading capability. "It is not clear what problems are afflicting the Petrocedeno facility that would prevent planned start-up," said the analyst, adding that "the lack of any timeframe for operations resumption for not just this upgrader but the Petroanzoategui facility also, is a worry."
A downed refinery or two may say little about a country or its production of oil, but those light bulbs continue to weigh heavily on this editor's mind. One can't help but think that the failure of two upgraders carries a deeper message that can't be ignored.
Sooner or later, however, you can be sure the lights will come on.
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