Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 27 -- Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez as well as other country officials have taken issue with the latest oil production quota figures published by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
On its web site, OPEC's figures reduce Venezuela's quota ceiling to 2.47 million b/d in November, some 750,000 b/d lower than the 3.22 million b/d allotted earlier in September.
Ramirez said there is confusion and manipulation in the figures because, under OPEC's quota system, Venezuela is allocated 11.5% of the organization's total output. He said any change in the system of quotas would require a resolution by OPEC's ministers.
Venezuela's new production limit represents 9% of OPEC's 27.25 million b/d in total production—a figure that is in line with estimates by independent analysts and oil organizations concerning the level of Venezuela's actual output.
Paris-based International Energy Agency, among other secondary sources of information, pegs Venezuela's output at 2.4 million b/d. In his criticism of OPEC's figures, Ramirez said they reflect information based on such secondary sources.
Carlos Ramones, Venezuela's vice-minister of finance, also expressed surprise about the OPEC decision, saying the ministry will review the change for the 2008 budget. "You can't reduce that many barrels to the quota [ceiling.] This will be reviewed because we have to set an oil production level for the [2008] budget," he said.
The OPEC figures also might come as an embarrassment to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who as recently as Sept. 16 announced plans to increase his country's oil production to 5 million b/d in 2012 from the current 3.2 million b/d (OGJ Online, Sept. 19, 2007).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
