Debt, sanctions and disrepair: Venezuela's oil sector in agony

[Zorro]

After decades of being Venezuela's cash cow, the state oil company PDVSA is a ragged shadow of its former self: overburdened, underfed, and in hock to Russian and Chinese creditors.

The woes of the group, whose full name is Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., look set to worsen because of US sanctions imposed last month restricting its access to credit.

Oil production keeps declining and much of what is exported goes to repay billions of dollars in loans.

That puts the government of President Nicolas Maduro in a very tight spot. It relies on PDVSA's export income for 96 percent of foreign earnings, and to pay for many social programs.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/debt-sanctions-disrepair-venezuelas-oil-sector-agony-054624847.html

Way to go, Chavistas.

[Marksman_91]

1. You've got to be really corrupt and/or incompetent to fuck up your main source of income

That's how horribly managed everything that chavistas touch is.

[GatoGordo]

2. When you replace knowledgeable, skilled workers

with politically connected Chavista sycophants, things begin to fall apart.

Chavez chased the best and brightest industry engineers and technicians away, to Mexico, Brazil and the United States. According to my relatives in the industry who still live in VZ, PDVSA is top-heavy in Chavista management types, each who siphon a little off the "gravy train" to enrich themselves. They are the equivalent of warlords, with armed protection and walled compounds.

The homegrown and educated engineers and technicians have been replaced by "technical advisers" from China and "overseers" from Cuba. Halliburton and other service companies (if they do any business there) are paid in cash (dollars) up front. China has long since abandoned Chavismo's grand infrastructure plan, including high speed and light rail and hydroelectric dams, all of which sit rusting and rotting from neglect.

Everyone is pretty much certain that once the tit runs dry, these frauds will scatter like birds from a bush. Already, Chavismo is looking for someone to blame. Recently, "military intelligence" (tee hee!) in VZ arrested 9 PDVSA honchos after an investigation by the new Chavista prosecutor. But not a peep about Maduro's connections with Odebrecht and the billions siphoned off by the PSUV.