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Naming numbers: Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez

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Orinoco 'pumping 418,000 bpd'

Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said today the country's heavy crude belt is producing 418,000 barrels of oil per day.

Earlier this year, Venezuela imposed Opec cuts on four heavy crude upgrading projects in the Orinoco belt, keeping output from the region far below its total capacity of around 550,000 bpd.

"Verifying the figures we have production of 3.07 million barrels today, 1.439 (million) coming from the east, 79,000 from the central south region, 1.134 (million) from the west and 418,000 from the (Orinoco) belt," Reuters quoted Ramirez as saying in a live interview on Venezuelan state television.

In May, state-run player PDVSA said the four projects were producing 482,000 bpd. The projects can pump close to 630,000 bpd of tar-like Orinoco crude and upgrade it into around 570,000 bpd of lighter, synthetic oil.

A fifth project, a joint venture between PDVSA and China National Petroleum Corporation called Sinovensa, has traditionally produced Orinoco oil that was used for the boiler fuel Orimulsion.

But Venezuela discontinued this product last year, and it is unclear what Sinovensa's current production is and whether Ramirez was including this production in the figures he gave.

He said the nation maintains a 195,000 bpd Opec-mandated cut, though authorities had previously reported the cut was 138,000 bpd.

PDVSA in June took a majority stake in the four projects as part of President Hugo Chavez's nationalisation drive, which is meant to boost state control over energy resources. The projects currently include investments from supermajors BP and Chevron France's Total and Norway's Statoil.

PDVSA took over the shares held by ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which are still in compensation talks with Venezuelan authorities.

The Opec nation's official production figures typically show output around 3 million bpd, but market observers say the nation's production is only around 2.4 million bpd.

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