CARACAS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Venezuela currently has 140 oil rigs in operation, state oil company PDVSA said on Tuesday, down sharply from the 222 rigs operating two years ago.
Stocks
Venezuela said it has cut oil production this year in line with OPEC quotas. Production may also have been affected by the nationalization of dozens of service companies in the Lake Maracaibo oil region.
Of the 140 active rigs, which include drilling and workover rigs used to maintain oil wells, 50 belong to PDVSA and 90 to contractors, said PDVSA Vice President Eulogio Del Pino in a statement.
The statement gave no figures for rigs in operation in previous years but an Energy and Petroleum Ministry report in November reported 157 were working in 2008 and 222 in 2007.
The report did not specify if those figures represented the average number of active rigs operating each year, or referred to the rigs active at the end of each of those calendar years.
Stocks
Venezuela said it has cut oil production this year in line with OPEC quotas. Production may also have been affected by the nationalization of dozens of service companies in the Lake Maracaibo oil region.
Of the 140 active rigs, which include drilling and workover rigs used to maintain oil wells, 50 belong to PDVSA and 90 to contractors, said PDVSA Vice President Eulogio Del Pino in a statement.
The statement gave no figures for rigs in operation in previous years but an Energy and Petroleum Ministry report in November reported 157 were working in 2008 and 222 in 2007.
The report did not specify if those figures represented the average number of active rigs operating each year, or referred to the rigs active at the end of each of those calendar years.
On Tuesday, Helmerich & Payne (HP.N), one of PDVSA's leading drilling contractors, said in a statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that all 11 of its rigs in Venezuela were idle. [ID:nBNG535633] (Reporting by Marianna Párraga, writing by Walker Simon; Editing by Frank Daniel and Lisa Shumaker)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0821275920091208?type=marketsNews
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