PDVSA, the state oil company, suffers from a shortage of both skilled staff and cash.
The country cannot continue borrowing at today's rates: PDVSA's latest dollar-denominated bonds pay a 12.75% coupon.
Then Chavez fired dozens of PDVSA engineers and has since starved the company of capital.
The Venezuela-owned PDVSA, which owns the Houston-based energy giant Citgo, has multiple energy deals in Iran.
Under Chavez, PDVSA has invested twice as much in social programs as in its energy-related businesses.
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Like Mexico's Pemex, Venezuela's PDVSA needs to adopt the winning model of Brazil's Petrobras.
The public was astounded to learn that PDVSA flights have enjoyed an incredible privilege in Argentina.
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The two countries also formalised a co-operation deal between Venezuelan energy firm PDVSA and Argentina's Enarsa.
Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is 100 percent owner of the Tulsa-based CITGO oil company.
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But production remains flat, either through a lack of infrastructure, expertise or late PDVSA payments.
But now, as the head of PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, he is on the other side.
At 330, 000 barrels of oil a day, PDVSA is shipping twice as much as a year ago.
Many of the service contracts allow for international arbitration, so PDVSA is likely to face expensive lawsuits.
PDVSA, the state oil company, is the source of over 90% of the hard currency entering the country.
The sanctions bar PDVSA from access to U.S. government contracts, financing through the U.S. Export-Import Bank and export licenses.
But hyperefficient ExxonMobil also earns a 21% return on equity, double PDVSA's return.
The strike at the state oil producer, PDVSA, means the government has insufficient revenue to service its debts, reckons J.
If it were not for the suitcase scandal, the preferential treatment conferred on PDVSA flights and passengers would sure continue.
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Now it could be that the decision to include PDVSA on the list is a policy decision for other headaches.
If Maduro somehow wins, and continues in the Chavez mold, then Pdvsa is not just on borrowed money, but borrowed time.
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PDVSA, whose workforce has more than doubled since 2003, now builds houses, imports food, runs farms and pays for adult-education projects.
By last September the financial situation at Pdvsa had gotten so dire that the company was paying service providers with IOUs.
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Meanwhile, state-owned oil company PdVSA has been all but stripped for parts.
That's why PDVSA bought Citgo, starting with a 50% stake in 1986.
PDVSA's spokesman neither answers his phone nor returns calls to his office.
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Some Western oil companies, including BP, agreed to turn over a controlling interest to PdVSA, while others such as Exxon Mobil Corp.
Viso will drive the No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA Chevrolet, bringing the Team Venezuela sponsorship with him that he's used throughout his career.
Earlier his wife, Marisabel, and children had left Caracas in the cover of darkness on a PDVSA jet for Barquisimeto in western Venezuela.
Russia's petro-giants, GAZPROM and LUKOIL, along with Venezuela's PDVSA, recently agreed to form what will be the largest oil consortium in the world.
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