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ExxonMobil refuses PDVSA oil at Chalmette: Ramirez
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com, Mar 03, 2008
Venezuela aims to reduce the amount of oil it puts in the spot market
while championing for OPEC to maintain production at present levels, even as
its bitter arbitration with US oil major ExxonMobil intensifies.The latest development in the Exxon-PDVSA conflict that began with the
2007 nationalization of ExxonMobil's Cerro Negro Orinoco project is that the
US oil major is not accepting 80,000 b/d of crude that PDVSA normally sends to
Chalmette, a 192,760 b/d refinery owned by a 50-50 joint venture between PDVSA
and ExxonMobil."They are disregarding signed supply agreements for Chalmette," PDVSA
President and Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said. Asked if ExxonMobil
was not taking the PDVSA oil, he said, "Yes."Asked whether that was the case, ExxonMobil spokesman Alan Jeffers said,
" we don't discuss crude sourcing for our refineries." But, Jeffers also noted
that "Chalmette is capable of processing a variety of crudes" and that "it
just came out of a turnaround." On Wednesday, a 15,000 b/d alkylation unit and
72,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker at the refinery were restarted after
undergoing maintenance that began in early January.Ramirez also said PDVSA is looking to reduce its dependence on the spot
market. It seeks to add long-term, bilateral supply contracts "such as the one
we have with China, where we are sending 250,000 b/d of crude and will
eventually go to 1 million b/d," he said."We put less than 30% of our production in the spot market, and we aim to
reduce that to put more in long-term contracts," Ramirez said. "The spot
market only creates speculation."Ramirez also said that Venezuela will maintain at the March 5 OPEC
meeting in Vienna that oil production be maintained at the present levels,
saying it is not the fault of producing countries if oil futures trade at
$103/barrel. "Geopolitical situations, such as the Exxon-PDVSA arbitration,
that is what is driving oil prices up," Ramirez said.
Story by Carlos Camacho from Platts
Platts 29 02 08Copyright© 2007 Petroleumworld. All rights reserved.
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