Sources: At least 18 injured by fire at Venezuelan La Salina oil terminal
Sources familiar with the operations of Venezuela's La Salina Oil Terminal said that at least 18 people, including workers, neighbours and firefighters, were reported injured by a fire in a crude oil storage tank. The fire started early on in the morning during a thunderstorm and raged through the afternoon. The facility is near Cabimas, a western city on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, and is operated by the state oil company PDVSA. PDVSA has not responded to a comment request.
Maurel & Prom Buys Shell's Stake in Venezuela
Paris-based Maurel & Prom announced that it has acquired Shell Exploration and Production Investments' 40% interest as Shareholder B in Petroregional del Lago Mixed Company, which operates the Urdaneta West field in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela.Maurel & Prom said further that all condition precedents have been satisfied and that the acquisition has been completed.The total consideration for the acquisition of Shell's shares in the Mixed Company is EUR70 million…
Under Military Rule, PDVSA Workers Quit in Stampede
Chauffeured around in a sleek black pick-up, the head of Venezuela's oil industry, Major General Manuel Quevedo, last month toured a joint venture with U.S. major Chevron. Flanked by other trucks carrying security guards, Quevedo passed a handful of workers waiting by an oil well cluster. They wanted a word with the OPEC nation's oil minister and president of its state-run oil firm, PDVSA, about the sorry state of the company. Quevedo and his caravan drove on by.
Paralysis at PDVSA: Venezuela's Oil Purge Escalates
Decisions at some joint ventures with foreign firms are delayed. A growing number of oil tankers sit idle because no one authorizes payments. Employees struggle to get approval for routine expenses, from taxis to training. An alleged crackdown on graft in Venezuela, seen by critics as an effort by President Nicolas Maduro to consolidate power, has sown panic across the country's energy industry and all but paralyzed state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA…
Two Venezuelan Oil Workers Die in Fire -PDVSA
Two workers died and one was injured in a fire at an electricity generation plant in Venezuela's western state of Zulia, state oil company PDVSA said on Tuesday. The fire at the Lamargos-Lago complex next to Lake Maracaibo was completely extinguished after flaring on Monday night, PDVSA said in a statement. The workers were carrying out maintenance. It was unclear what sparked the blaze. "PDVSA created an investigation committee to investigate the causes of the accident," the statement said.
PDVSA Oil Workers Struggle in Triple-Digit Inflation
For decades, jobs at Venezuela's state-run oil giant PDVSA were coveted for above average salaries, generous benefits and cheap credit that brought home ownership and vacationing abroad within reach for many workers. Now, in Venezuela's asphyxiating economy, even PDVSA employees are struggling to pay for everything from food and bus rides to school fees as triple-digit inflation eats away incomes. They are pawning goods…
Venezuela's Oil Production Drops as Economic Crisis Bites
Hungry Venezuelans are rioting and looting amid worsening food shortages, but the OPEC country's remote oil fields have been sheltered from the social unrest so far. Venezuela's blistering economic crisis, however, is hitting them full on. Output in the country, which has the world's largest oil reserves, dropped to 2.37 million barrels per day in May, according to OPEC data published on Monday. That's down some 5 percent from April and off nearly 11 percent from 2015…
Pirates and Hold-ups: Crime Strikes Venezuela's Oil Industry
When night falls over western Venezuela, armed gangs known as "pirates" sometimes ride boats into muggy Lake Maracaibo to steal equipment from oil wells. In the country's Paraguana peninsula, opposite the Caribbean island of Aruba, slum dwellers at times break through a perimeter wall into Venezuela's biggest refinery and rob machinery, construction tools, and cables to sell as scrap. On the other side of the OPEC country in Monagas state…
Crime Paralyzes Venezuela's oil industry
When night falls over western Venezuela, armed gangs known as "pirates" sometimes ride boats into muggy Lake Maracaibo to steal equipment from oil wells. In the country's Paraguana peninsula, opposite the Caribbean island of Aruba, slum dwellers at times break through a perimeter wall into Venezuela's biggest refinery and rob machinery, construction tools, and cables to sell as scrap. On the other side of the OPEC country in Monagas state…
Maersk Sells Ven Drilling Barges
Danish shipping conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Tuesday its offshore oil and gas drilling unit has sold its Venezuelan barge activities. Maersk Drilling said on its website its Venezuelan barge business represents a "minor part" of its activities. It comprises of a fleet of 10 barges on management contracts on Lake Maracaibo. Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki
The History of Offshore Energy
Offshore exploration is a history of man v. Prospecting for oil is a dynamic art. From a lake in Ohio, to piers off the California coast in the early 1900s, to the salt marshes of Louisiana in the 1930s, to the first “out-of-sight- of-land” tower in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico, the modern offshore petroleum industry has inched its way over the last roughly 75 years from 100 ft. of water ever farther into the briny deep, where the biggest platform today, Shell’s Perdido spar, sits in 8,000 ft. of water.
