Venezuela
Venezuela is a special member of Mercosur. Its application for full membership is under negotiation.
Website of Indian Embassy in Caracas http://www.embindia.org
Petroleum
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere. With 77 billion barrels of reserves, Venezuela ranks sixth in the world. In addition, there are about 270 billion barrels of reserves of recoverable extra heavy crude found in the Orinoco belt. Most of the oil reserves are found in the Maracaibo lake region in the west.
The oil sector is the mainstay of the Venezuelan economy. Over 60% of the Government’s income and 80% of the exports come from oil.
The oil sector was nationalized in 1976. PDVSA is the state corporation dealing with exploration, production, refining and downstream activities. With a turnover of 46 billion US dollars, it is the third largest oil company in the world. The oil sector has been reopened to foreign companies since 1995. However the foreign companies have to be partners of PDVSA. There are 38 foreign oil companies who have presence in Venezuela.
The annual oil production has been around 2.5 million bpd. The production capacity of Venezuela is about 4 million bpd.
Venezuela is a founder member of OPEC and played a crucial role in the formation of OPEC. It has taken an active role in OPEC policy formulations since 1999.
PDVSA owns Citgo Petroleum Corporation of USA which has 6 refineries, and 13000 gas stations. PDVSA has share holdings in the oil companies of Germany and Sweden and has storage facilities in Caribbean. PDVSA is expanding its network in Latin America and caribbean region..
A broad range of petrochemicals are produced by ‘Pequiven’ a subsidiary of PDVSA through three directly operated units and joint ventures.
For more information about the Venezuelan oil industry, browse www.pdvsa.pdv.com
Indian exporters may note (with envy!) that cost of petrol in Venezuela is about two Rupees a litre!
Gas:
Venezuela has the fifth largest reserves of natural gas in the world. Estimated reserves are 458 trillion cubic feet. Production capacity is around 6 trillion cubic feet per day, of which 90% comes from oil wells. Most gas production is absorbed by the oil industry, 11% goes to power generation, 6% to petrochemical production and the remainder goes to industries and consumers.
Since 1998, the gas industry has been opened to the private sector and is the focus of investment at present.
Asphalt:
Venezuela is a large producer of asphalt, exporting 27,000 bpd mostly to USA.
Mineral resources:
Venezuela is rich in mineral resources and these are located mostly in the Bolivar state in the southern part. Most of the mining activities are handled by a State Company CVG through its subsidiaries and joint ventures. The annual turnover of CVG is around 10 billion US dollars.
Coal:
Venezuela has one of the largest coal reserves in western hemisphere estimated at 10.2 billion tons. Annual production is about 15 million tons.
Iron Ore:
is the second most exploited mineral resource after oil. Estimates of reserves are around 19.5 billion tons. Most of the iron ore is found in Guyana region. Annual production is about 15 million tons of which around 5 million tons are exported.
Gold:
Gold reserves are around 10,000 tons. Venezuela accounts for 12% of world’s reserves. Production of gold is done by a state company as well by foreign multinational companies.
Aluminium:
Bauxite reserves are estimated to be 5.2 billion tons. Annual production of Aluminium is around 500,000 tons, of which exports are about 359,000 tons.
The other minerals available in Venezuela are phosphate, zinc, copper and diamond.
Infrastructure:
Electricity:
Annual production is 20 GWH, of which 75% comes from hydroelectric stations. Blessed with several major perennial rivers, Venezuela’s hydroelectric system is the best in the region. The Guri Dam on the Caroni river has a production capacity of 10000 MW per year which makes it the second largest in the world. There are plans for building some more hydroelectric plants. Venezuela’s electricity tariffs are the lowest in Latin America.
Roads:
Venezuela has the highest percentage of paved highways in Latin America. Length of highway network is 95000 Km.
Railways:
Railways is limited. Total rail length is only 584 Km. It is used mainly for cargo. Caracas has a limited but efficient metro system. Maracaibo and Valencia cities are also establishing metro systems. There are plans to expand the railway network of Venezuela to over 4000 Kms.
Ports:
Following are the major ports:
(1) La Guaira 30 Kms from Caracas (largest port)
(2) Puerto Cabello 330 Kms from Caracas to the West
(3) Maracaibo (Caters mainly to the petroleum industry)
(4) Puerto La Cruz Petroleum products
Agriculture:
It is the weakest economic sector, having suffered decline since the 1950s, when oil production overshadowed other activities. Venezuela has 95 million hectares of cultivable land, plenty of water and good climate. However, only 23% of the cultivable land is presently being used. Even out of this, three-quarters is devoted to pasture. 60% of Venezuela’s food requirements are met by imports. Cattle ranching generates 50% of the agricultural revenue.
Major crops are rice, corn, sugarcane,coffee and coco.
Industry:
Major industries are petrochemicals, iron and steel, aluminium, automobile assembly, leather, food processing and textiles.
Annual Steel production is about 6 million tons.
General Motors, Ford and Toyota assemble cars in Venezuela. Vehicle sales are around 200,000 per year.
Petrochemicals production capacity is around 9 million tons a year. There are plans to increase the capacity to 16.8 million tons.
Food processing and cosmetics industries are doing well in comparison to others. Per capita consumption of cosmetics in Venezuela is the highest in the world.
Bilateral Trade (US $ million)
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
Exports from India
|
32 |
49 |
29 |
25 |
51 |
98 |
131 |
95 |
195 |
213 |
Imports by India
|
150 |
254 |
140 |
4 |
10 |
35 |
850 |
489 |
3700 |
2260 |
Principal items of India ’s exports pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles and engineering products
Indian pharma industry has already made a mark and some Indian companies, such as Ranbaxy; Dr. Reddy’s Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla, Core Health Care, Strides Arco Labs, Ipca Laboratories Ltd. have offices in Caracas.
The sales of pharmaceuticals in Venezuela are about 1.5 billion dollars, of which generic medicines account for 250 million dollars. The generic medicines are now being promoted by the Venezuelan Government. This has increased the scope for our exporters who are strong in generic medicines.
Ayurvedic medicines are also popular in Venezuela . The Government has recognized Ayurveda as an alternative system of treatment. Companies such as Himalaya Drugs and Dabur have made entry here.
ONGC Videsh Ltd ( OVL ) has been offered oil fields for exploration and production by the government of Venezuela. The production from some fields should start in 2008-9.
Trade Directory in English
Investment in Venezuela ( English )
Exporters directory ( English )
Trade fair information ( English )
Venezuelan Confederation of Industries
Federation of Chambers of Commerce
Association of IT Companies
Directory of Venezuelan Cos .
Assn of Chemicals & Petrochemicals
Chamber of food processing industry
Chamber of medicines
CVG, the public sector company in Aluminium, Iron and other minerals
More Associations are covered in the following links