Monthly Archives: October 2010

PDVSA has posted online English versions of its 2009 full year, 1st-half 2010 and 1st-half 2009 financial statements. Now you know.

One more little bit about the possible sale of Citgo and other overseas assets. I hear anti-Chavistas now and then slam the idea of selling overseas assets as a giveaway or otherwise stupid. These sales are pure profit. Venezuela bought … Continue reading →

Yesterday morning I was surprised to see Jose Suarez Nuñez, one of the most connected and knowledgable oil reporters in Venezuela, saying that the country would sell Citgo because it didn’t have enough oil to supply both Citgo and its … Continue reading →

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said weeks ago he would nationalize Fertinitro, the fertilizer company. That’s the same one I mentioned months ago as being controlled by Koch Industries, the same Koch that created two of the five richest men in … Continue reading →

This time via Peru, according to this report from the Peruvian state newswire. (h/t China South America): # # Lima, Oct. 22 (ANDINA). Chinese corporation Kerui Group announced its interest in entering the Peruvian market by setting up an oil … Continue reading →

Gold mining in Madre de Dios, the area of eastern Peru near Brazil. Some photos from behind these disturbing numbers. It’s a fantastic photo essay. Among other things, it shows that some people can work their way up from poverty … Continue reading →

Today’s El Mercurio shows that Chile isn’t likely to do squat to improve worker safety in the wake of the San Jose mine disaster. While the country has leapt to jail a stressed-out kindergarten teacher who killed a student by … Continue reading →

Nice to see Bloomberg & Reuters following me on the PDVSA arbitration story. Note to potential clients: scouring obscure documents is something I’m pretty good at. Let me know if you have something you want me to look for: settysoutham@gmail.com. … Continue reading →

The following is all from a preliminary version of the new PDVSA bond offering circular. I am quoting it at length and highlighting in bold the parts that strike me as newsworthy. This is much easier than writing my own … Continue reading →

PDVSA released some unaudited 1st-half 2010 financial figures and as usual there is a lot of weirdness there. A few of the interesting items to keep an eye on: “Social development contributions” are up more than 10-fold in the first … Continue reading →