Venezuela oil chiefs told US data falsified -report [View All]

[naaman fletcher]

Senior officials from PDVSA and the energy ministry had quicker access to U.S. visas after telling the embassy how the company double-counted oil production and manipulated the price of Venezuela's crude, El Pais reported, citing the cables.

"A senior member of the energy ministry ... admitted that at times PDVSA exported oil to be stored overseas and then imported it again to refine and export it again, counting twice the same production," the El Pais story said.

...

Staff at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas were told to watch for potentially useful Venezuelan officials standing in line at the visa counter and let them skip the line, El Pais said.

The tactic appears to have been successful -- officials also revealed that PDVSA sold oil to China for as little as $5 a barrel, suffered from growing problems of quality control and used refined products to raise the price of Venezuela crude, it said.


http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN0928023420101210?sp=true