By Kejal Vyas
CARACAS--Venezuela said Wednesday that it will receive $2
billion in credit lines from oil-field service providers
Schlumberger, Halliburton Co. and Weatherford International.
The agreement, the latest in a series of financing deals struck
between Venezuela and energy companies over the past year, allows
the trio to increase activity in the country as it tries to turn
around an embattled oil sector and boost crude output, Economy Vice
President Rafael Ramirez said in a televised address. He didn't
offer specific terms of the deals.
"All companies that want to get on board with this scheme of
financing their work and who understand that we need to double
activity in the country are welcome without problems," said Mr.
Ramirez, who also serves as head of national energy giant Petróleos
de Venezuela SA.
Schlumberger renewed a $1 billion credit line that it opened up
with Venezuela last year, while Halliburton and Weatherford have
agreed to similar terms, the official said.
Foreign companies ranging from the oil and food sectors to
airlines have complained of accumulating debts with the government
and payment delays as reasons for slowing operations. PdVSA, as the
state company is known, last reported its debt load with oil
service providers in 2012, when it had risen by 35% from the
previous year to surpass $16 billion.
Venezuela will invest $24 billion in its oil industry this year
as it faces declining output. Production in 2013 sat at 2.78
million barrels a day, compared with 2.91 million a year earlier,
the Oil Ministry said in an annual report to the National
Assembly.
Prior to Wednesday's announcement, the South American government
had signed at least seven deals over the past year to secure $11
billion in financing from oil partners like China National
Petroleum Corp., U.S. major Chevron, and Spain's Repsol, together
aimed at hiking production by nearly 400,000 barrels of crude a
day.
But the projects have so far shown little progress, Barclays
analysts said in a note to clients Tuesday, keeping pressure on
Venezuela's finances as the country relies on oil exports for 96%
of its foreign currency income.
President Nicolás Maduro's Socialist Party, which has ruled
Venezuela for 15 years, relies on oil revenues to pay for
development plans and welfare programs that keep it popular with
the country's many poor.
-Write to Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com
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