PDVSA at the helm: a worker celebrates the nationalisation of the Orinoco heavy oil belt last year
PDVSA income takes a tumble
Venezuela's state-run producer PDVSA has seen its net income slide by 68.5% year-on-year, coming in at $896 million for the first half of 2007, compared with $2.85 billion in the same period a year earlier.
According to the company's unaudited financial statements for the period, PDVSA booked $42.9 billion in net revenue, down 15.7% from the $50.9 billion reported in the same period in 2006.
Revenue from oil exports was $41.6 billion, down 16.1% from $49.6 billion in the first half of 2006.
PDVSA's operating costs in the six-month period dropped 36.3% to $4.88 billion from $7.65 billion in the same period of 2006. The company said the drop was due to the 2007 conversion of operating service agreements into PDVSA-controlled joint ventures.
PDVSA's capital expenditure for the first half of last year increased 113% year-on-year to $3.55 billion from $1.67 billion. Exploration spending in the period came in at $52 million, up from $34 million in the first half of 2006.
Output also dipped in the first half of last year, with PDVSA pumping 2.8 million barrels per day, compared with 2.9 million bpd in the year-earlier period.
Total production, including PDVSA's share from joint ventures operating in the country, totalled 3.1 million bpd compared to 3.3 million bpd in the 2006 period, according to the statement.
Opec puts Venezuela's total production at about 2.4 million bpd.