I dig it--all the rightwing has is fear-mongering, they certainly don't have a political program outside coups, lies, and destablization where they can.
OW
Heads up - the PDVSA statement for 2003 got filed with the SEC and is on their internet site. I just did a quick and dirty on the production numbers which averaged 2.4 million per day for 2003. Add in the 400k in the Orinoco that isn't theirs and the country's production averaged 2.8 million. Given it was very low at the beginning of the year due to the strike it had to have been over 3 million by the end of the year to get that average of 2.8 million.
So the opposition which has been peddling the 2.6 million is now caught in a big lie (not to mention our long lost friend Just Noticing). Anyone want to place bets on if they will apoligize for all their lies?
How about 2004, Sandy? Maybe next year, right?
You're actually glad they filed 2003 IN OCTOBER 2005. What a joke.
No Mr. Shark there is noo joke here. What is basically criminal is that the scum that formerly ran PDVSA and Intesa destroyed the financial records and refused to turn them over even with a court order telling them to do so.
Fortunately that won't happen again as those swine will hopefully never enter PDVSA again.
And now that 2003, with the problem of destroyed records is out of the way 2004 should be knocked off in a few months.
Anyways, care to take a stab at why the opposition has been lying about the production numbers for all this time as shown by these audited statements filed with the US SEC?
Yep, I saw it. It will be a post.
I hope by this point the opposition lies only anger you - they should have ceased to surprise you quite some time ago.
Sandy your reading was too quick. That is the total production including everything, heavy and light, PDVSA's and others, so the average was 2.4 million. In fact, you can check it easily, the number of years of reserves for the country goes from 63 to 74, while reserves remain constant. In fact, it is very well categorized in a table later in the report. It even notes Hamaca was not producing in 2003. We may not like it, but those numbers show that OPEC and others were giving the correct number.
No Eddie the numbers on page 21 do not include all of the Orinoco Belt production. Note this from the top of page 21 before the table.
"In 2003, our [our being PDVSA] crude oil production averaged 2,451 MBPD (including 122 MBPD attributable to our participation in the Orinoco Belt projects) with API gravity between 16° and 32°."
So take the the 2.452 number as your starting point add in the remainder of the Orinoco and you are up around 2.7 or 2.8. Then just do a little analysis of what a consistent production number you would need to have for the remainder of the year to make up for the low production during the first part of the year (from the strike) and you get a number over 3 million MBPD.
Bingo.
I still am not sure Sandy, take this table in page 21
Total crude oil production
2003 2,451
2002 2,659
2001 3,094
2000 3,085
1999 2,950
Of which 465,000 were produced in operating agreements
Granted this is an average it does not even paint a whole picture.
The numbers still don't add up however, does anyone know the exact date when the lockout started? As you can see there was a drop in production in 2002 that had to precede December, since even if there was 0 production and all things are equal it would mean a 2.8 MBD average. I guess we will have to wait until the 2004 numbers show up to get an adequate picture.
Actually, I just looked on page 17 where they give the global output for Venezuela - it was 2,846,000 per day of which 455,000 was the Orinoco oil. So that definitely proves the PDVSA numbers for 2003 are correct.
I'm not sure what you are saying doesn't add up. The strike began in December 2002. Production went to almost 0 for that month. Then it recovered a little in January, a little more in February, and still more in March. They didn't get full production until late March or April. So to average 2,846,000 they (meaning the country as a whole not just PDVSA) had to produce over 3 million for the rest of the year - just as they said all along they were doing.
So its pretty clear from this. But your right the 2004 numbers will be cleaner because you won't have to do the weighting of production for different parts of the year because there wasn't a strike in 2004, production would have been consistent throughout the year.
Flanker, I think what causes the confusion is that it used to be PDVSA's production and Venezuela's production were the same thing, PDVSA was producing all of the country'r oil. But with the Strategic associations that changed and PDVSA itself no longer represents all of the Venezuelan production. A real lot of people get mixed up with that. Going back to 1999 and 2000 there was a lot less of the Orinoco oil 'cause it was just ramping up. Consequently PDVSA's numbers were higher. But as the Orinoco production ramps up PDVSA has had to cut back itself for the country as a whole to stay within OPEC production quotas. And on top of that you had the strike.
So when you look at the table on page 21 you have to remember that the numbers going down a lot are PDVSA numbers. The country's numbers as a whole would also go down but not as much because the Orinoco production has been going up.
I hope I'm clarifying this for you and not making it more confusing 
Heres the interesting one; The Oppo writers and essayists always like to point out how Chavez is manipulating the population into supporting its cause with fanciful rhetoric and propoganda, yet below the radar this oppo grass roots campaign has targeted the same demographic that they claim Chavez is manipulating only they have to resort to lies to get the same level of effect!
Talk about cheap. Suffer if you must.
Sandy, good catches. I noticed the same numbers. Of course it would be hard to miss them when you're reading reading it cover to cover. If I'm a little quiet not its because I'm a little busy with some light reading of PDVSA financial statements 
But have patience - a post is coming.
testing 123
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