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Venezuela needs to be placed under an "electricity emergency," President Hugo Chavez said Monday in his new, "any-time" radio program "Suddenly With Chavez."

Even though an electricity rationing program last month was revoked after public pressure, Chavez said the needs to cut consumption are real.

"We're ready to declare an electricity emergency, because it really is an emergency," said the president.

He said the decree would make it the government's top priority to seek ways of boosting the country's electric power supply.

Chavez last month announced a special, one billion dollar fund to develop 59 power generating and distributing projects and 50 operating and maintenance projects in the country.

Venezuela is an top oil producer in the world, but meets domestic energy demand with a large percentage of electricity generated by hydroelectric power and has back up plants of thermoelectric power for the dry season, but 10 years of neglect in the maintenance of the power plants and cancellation, delays and postponements of construction of new generating electric plants to meet the growing demand plus this year drought created an impossible situation.

Even though, the government blames the drought on the cyclical El Nino climate pattern, scientist said that there is no Nino affecting Venezuela.

Story by Elio Ohep, editor of petroleumworld, 58 212 635 7252; 58 412 996 3730; editor@petroleumworld.com; Caracas.

Petroleumworld 02/09/2010 23:00 EST

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