As Global Oil Demand Tightens, A Big Producer Has Own Agenda Venezuela's President Chávez Uses PDVSA to Help Poor, But Output Diminishes Free Medical Care in the Slums By DAVID LUHNOW and PETER MILLARD August 1, 2006; Page A1
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Ricardo Coronado, the head of western operations for Venezuela's state-run oil giant, found out the hard way that his job wasn't just overseeing development of one of the world's richest oil regions. On a recent Saturday, Venezuela's flamboyant leader Hugo Chávez scolded him on national television for failing to appear at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a school in western "The time is past when the president turned up and PDVSA was off somewhere minding its own business," said Mr. Chávez, who ordered an aide to summon Mr. Coronado. When the hapless executive arrived a half-hour later, Mr. Chávez was still raging, and cut him off before he could defend himself. "There's nothing you can say," the Venezuelan president lectured. Since Mr. Chávez took power in 1999, he has become PDVSA's de facto CEO, steering the oil company into political, economic and philanthropic ventures that have distracted it from its core business of finding and producing more oil. The consequences for PDVSA are stark: Output has fallen to an estimated 1.6 million barrels a day from nearly 3 million barrels in 1998. The oil company, the world's third-biggest by most measures, is run along social and political guidelines as much as business tenets. As a result, much of the decision-making involves figuring out new ways to fund Mr. Chávez's pet projects. One of the latest ventures was paying to televise soccer's World Cup for free in Bolivia, a Chávez ally. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115439037350022856.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:212185 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
